Israel site for California solar power test

By Ari Rabinovitch

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Energy company BrightSource Energy Inc said it will open a solar "power tower" in Israel this week to test new technology it will use when building power plants next year in California.

California utility PG&E Corp signed contracts with BrightSource in April to buy up to 900 megawatts of solar thermal power in the next few years, enough to power about 630,000 homes.

The move is part of a PG&E push to comply with California's requirement that at least 20 percent of its electricity supplies come from renewable energy by 2010.

A global race is on to find energy alternatives to replace fossil fuels, and entrepreneurs are scrambling for a slice of a clean energy market that analysts estimate was worth nearly $150 billion last year.

BrightSource's development centre, with its 60 meter-high (60 foot) tower and some 1,200 mirrors, sits on about 12,000 square meters (three acres) of Israel's southern Negev Desert, chairman Arnold Goldman said.

BrightSource did not release financial details of the complex, but said its systems are more cost-efficient than other solar power plants.

The new power tower, which is capable of generating 1.5 megawatts, will not produce electricity for public use, but rather test the technologies that will power future plants, including a 100 megawatt plant in California's Mojave Desert scheduled to be completed by 2011, Kroizer said.

The 100 megawatt plant will be about 50 times larger that the Negev centre.