“Things have progressed,” Weihl said in an interview. “We have an internal prototype.”

Google has been looking at unusual materials for the mirror’s reflective surface and the substrate on which the mirror is mounted. Mirrors focus the sun’s rays on the heated substance to heat a substance that produces steam to run a turbine.

Google has been investing in companies and doing research of its own to produce affordable renewable energy, wants to cut the cost of making heliostats, the fields of mirrors that track the sun. Google has invested in two solar thermal companies, eSolar and BrightSource, with which it has discussed the new mirror technology, Weihl said.

“If it works, it would absolutely be something they would use,” he said.

BrightSource’s proposed solar thermal plants are expected to generate about 400 megawatts of electricity and power about 140,000 California homes, giving it the heft to compete with plants fueled by coal and natural gas.

President Barack Obama’s administration has touted green energy investments as a way to create jobs and increase international economic competitiveness.

“We’re not going to sit on the sidelines while other countries capture the jobs of the future — we’re committed to becoming the global leader in the clean energy economy,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement.

The sector has seen projects being launched and agreements being signed with utilities, who count on solar thermal to meet California clean energy goals, but construction has yet to start on a large scale for the solar thermal industry.

Financing of projects has been a big challenge with the tightening of the credit markets as capital requirements of these green energy companies are very large.

Solar thermal technology is different from its better-known rival, rooftop photovoltaic. Solar thermal companies like BrightSource and rivals Abengoa Solar, eSolar Inc have technology that uses the sun’s rays, reflected by thousands of small mirrors, to heat liquids to create steam in turbines and generate electricity.

The conditional loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy, the largest federal loan commitment offered to a renewable energy firm, would help BrightSource build three utility-scale solar thermal plants for its Ivanpah project, which will be located on federally-owned land in the Mojave Desert in southeastern California.

“It’s a good beginning for the industry,” BrightSource CEO John Woolard said in an interview. “It really allows Ivanpah to be the first (solar thermal) project to be constructed in almost 20 years now” in California.

California, and other parts of the world, are betting heavily on solar thermal. About a quarter of the clean energy contracts approved in 2009 in California by capacity was solar thermal, according to the Public Utilities Commission.

Construction on the first Ivanpah plant is expected to begin during the second half of this year, with commercial operations beginning in 2012.

All three plants are expected be on line by 2014.

The loan guarantee is conditioned on BrightSource meeting financial and environmental requirements, including local, state and federal regulatory approvals.

BrightSource has run into trouble from environmental groups who are concerned that the construction would harm desert plants and wildlife, including the desert tortoise.

The company earlier this month agreed to reduce the footprint for the Ivanpah project to minimize the environmental impact.

TO RAISE EQUITY FINANCING

The company, which counts search giant Google (GOOG.O) and Silicon Valley fund VantagePoint Venture Partners among its investors, already has contracts to deliver more than 2,600 megawatts of power to California utilities PG&E Corp (PCG.N) (PG&E) and Edison International’s (EIX.N) Southern California Edison (SCE).

PG&E will purchase approximately two-thirds of the power generated at Ivanpah and SCE will purchase approximately one-third.

Woolard said that the key value of federal loan guarantees is that it helps strong renewable energy projects get financed, especially since the credit markets have yet to reach normal levels of activity.

It “replaces or helps shore up that component,” he said.

Woolard did not reveal the total funding needed for the project but said the company would be raising equity financing from sources such as private investors, energy companies and investment funds.

“There is an equity commitment,” Woolard said. “We will be going out to raise equity (financing) in the next four to six months. So that will be the next step in the process.”

The loan guarantee is the sixth such offer to renewable energy companies by the Obama administration, which has touted green energy investments as a way to create jobs and increase international economic competitiveness.

Under the program, the Department of Energy issues a conditional commitment to guarantee loans to be provided by the U.S. Treasury’s Federal Financing Bank. (Additional reporting by Tom Doggett; Editing by Peter Henderson and Marguerita Choy)

Was 2009 reflection of expectations based on 2008?

It’s not like it’s totally doom and gloom out there. We have incentive programs… and, probably on a percentage basis even more in solar thermal in 2010. So, I think that the 2010 picture is going to be quite a bit different than the 2009 picture.

What incentives are most effective?

Stimulus money — some of those are probably direct system in that the federal government is buying, like the military bases in that kind of thing. Some of it is stimulus money that is going to states that they are buying systems directly for state or from and buildings. A lot of it  has flowed into state incentives; and, that money, a lot of it — hasn’t really flowed to real systems yet. So, the impact is going to be so much more in 2010 than it was in 2009.

Do you think that the market is just getting people to think more creatively?

Yes, and the lesson from the PV side. As the market has grown it has grown much faster in the nonresidential sector than the residential sector. And solar thermal market has traditionally been much more concentrated in the residential sector than the PV market has been. And what I have been noticing, is that there are more players actively pursuing the nonresidential market. And my guess is, is that solar thermal is going to grow dramatically year after year, for a number of years, a big part of how that’s going to happen, is starting to see much more installations outside of the residential sector.

Why?

The tax offerings are good. I think that the bigger systems allow some of economies of scale. There are some, more sophisticated installer integrator type players that are looking at that market — and I guess that in some markets PC isn’t going to make as much sense, and the solar thermal is going to make a lot more sense.

What about space heating?

There is a little, but not very much. And even if you look at the data from programs that offer incentives, in northern climates, which is where you would expect to see it — like Wisconsin and Oregon –  there is not very much. Space heating, you are going to see in cold weather places because they have really long heating seasons. So they can use the solar for a long part of the year. A climate that has a really short heating season is going to be really hard to justify.

And, you probably need something other than people heating with natural gas. It’s probably really difficult to make the economics work against natural gas.

What about solar cooling?

I would say, cooling is potentially more promising. I put it in the category of new technologies that are worth watching. But, I’ll believe it when I see it.

If the technology works, and it’s reasonable economically, they can compete against electricity. So, it has the potential to be a better value for the customer, and in hot weather places, where you’re using cooling for a long season, then it makes sense as heating. It’s not going to make sense for climate that doesn’t need cooling very much of the year.

Anywhere south of Washington DC — clearly the deep South, Florida Texas — would have potential. But I don’t know how close we are to realizing that potential.

Do you see much solar space heating or cooling in Europe?

Solar heating certainly. I am not sure about solar cooling. I’m not sure if there’s any place where there is a big market for that.  And the companies there need to come over and prove that they can make the market work here.

Are we going to see more activity from an energy bill in concress?

I think that the money [already] is in the pipeline. I think that the thing that would cause 2010 to go bad, if something went really bad in the economy overall. Future years may depend on an energy bill, but 2010 is more dependent on money that is already in the pipeline. The energy bill probably has nothing to do with 2010.

Are you aware that Senator Fiengold is put in a measure to increase the ITC credit to 50% on solar thermal instead of the current 30%?

My guess is that that would be a heavy lift; but it’s a worthy goal.

byline: Seth Warren Rose

Concentrating Solar Thermal Power 2010 will bring together industry experts, researchers and investors to examine the latest market developments within the concentrating solar thermal power sector. The conference will feature approximately 18 expert presentations assessing market trends, technical development and application related advances through presentations, question-and-answer sessions and panel discussions. Throughout the conference, there will be a number of hosted luncheons, breaks and receptions, which will be held in and around the exhibit area located outside the main conference room. Sponsorship and exhibition opportunities will be available.

This year’s program blends presentations from a government focus, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the California Energy Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy, with some of the most innovative companies in the industry like SolarReserve, Stirling Energy Systems Inc., BrightSource Energy, Flabeg, Abengoa Solar, ACCIONA Solar Power and eSolar.   Covering the entire CSP supply chain, delegates will also hear from ACS Cobra, California BLM, Emerging Energy Research, Fluor, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, Nexant Inc., NV Energy, Orrick, Prudential Capital Group, San Diego Gas & Electric, Sandia National Laboratories, SMUD, Solar Millennium, the Western Governors’ Association, Worley Parsons Group and Xcel Energy.

For an additional fee, there will be a pre-conference seminar on Wednesday, May 5 providing “An Overview of CSP: Technology, Systems, SEGS Developments, Current Project Development, and R&D” conducted by David Kearney of Kearney & Associates, Andrew McMahan of Sky Fuel and John White of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies (CEERT).

North America’s largest business-to-business solar industry event. 930+ exhibitors and an exhibit hall that includes all solar technologies: PV, CSP, solar hot water, solar heating and cooling and solar pool heating.  24,000 + Attendees: sellers, buyers and stakeholders including manufacturers, integrators, installers, utilities, investors, builders, architects, large energy users and policymakers.  3,000 Visitors on Open to the Public Night. 200+ Speakers, 65+ education sessions, two CEO panels and industry leading keynotes. Education tracks on finance, policy, markets, technology, crosscutting and implementation/execution

The HCOM was engineered by Heliodyne in order to offer installers a factory assembled, plug and play appliance that can work universally with any commercial project reducing all the design complexity associated with larger installations. “Commercial solar thermal systems can be complicated to the average solar professional. The HCOM eliminates a lot of the sizing and engineering guesswork making larger commercial projects an easier task.” comments Mike Starkey, head Engineer at Heliodyne.

The HCOM operates on the same principles as Heliodyne’s line of Residential closed loop heat transfer appliances, the Helio-Pak. Some notable features of the HCOM include “plug and play” installation, touch screen interface, advanced controller for remote Wi-Fi based monitoring and data storage, single/double wall heat exchanger and integrated variable speed pumps for system energy optimization. “We’re seeing a growing demand in solar thermal Commercial projects. We’re confident that with the simplicity of installing the HCOM, Commercial jobs will not only be an easier task for experienced installers, but also a viable option for less experienced installers new to Commercial solar” says Starkey.  The Commercial Solar Station will be available from Heliodyne late July 2009. More information on the HCOM can be found at www.heliodyne.com or by calling the main office at 1.888.878.8750.

In general, system overheating is a far more common and potentially damaging problem in the Sunbelt than under performance.  Persistent overheating can reduce both the individual component and system life.  SunEarth believes a better approach is to align climate appropriate collector output with overall system performance.

Our new SunBelt collector has been designed with the exacting conditions of the U.S. Southwest in mind, but can also be used successfully in other climate zones.  The collector features an attractive and rugged anodized extrusion, standard SunEarth all copper absorber with water based flat black paint, tempered glass, polyisocyanurate insulation, and standard ¾” headers.  There has been no skimping on the quality or reliability of the subcomponents.  The SunBelt is backed by our standard ten year limited warranty.

The SunBelt collector’s many benefits include significantly lower stagnation temperatures than black chrome or moderately selective absorber plates, reduced system overheating, prolonged propylene glycol and storage tank life expectancies, reduction in nuisance thermostat reset service calls, and lower initial cost.

At SunEarth we believe that in the rugged U.S. Sunbelt it’s the BTU’s you don’t collect that can really make a difference in system longevity.  Solar thermal distributors and contractors owe it to their customers to provide durable and reliable components and systems that generate persistent energy savings for decades.   The first step begins by specifying quality SunEarth Inc. collectors and SRCC OG-300 certified systems.

For more information on the SunBelt Series of liquid flat plate collectors or any of SunEarth’s other quality solar energy products please contact Paul Outram or Peter Bliss.