NEW YORK, April 9 (Reuters) – SolarReserve, which develops
large-scale concentrated solar power plants, may consider a
public offering of shares later this year or in 2013, chief
executive Kevin Smith said.
Such a move would follow BrightSource Energy Inc’s
IPO, expected this month. That company hopes to raise up to
$182.5 million.
“That’s something that we’ll probably evaluate later in the
year or 2013, along with other alternatives, such as (seeking)
strategic investors,” Smith told Reuters, referring to the
possibility of a SolarReserve initial public offering.
SolarReserve is building a 110-megawatt power plant, called
the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy project, near Tonopah, Nevada.
The company is not looking to raise cash, Smith said, but is
seeking debt and equity investors for large plants under
development.
Shares in most publicly traded solar companies have been
pummeled in recent months as panel prices have more than halved
since the beginning of 2011.
Unlike photovoltaic solar, which uses panels to turn
sunlight into electricity, SolarReserve’s Crescent Dunes plant
will use thousands of mirrors to reflect sunlight onto a “power
tower”.
That light heats fluid made of molten salt in a receiver,
which is used to produce steam and run an electricity turbine.
SolarReserve’s use of molten salt will allow it to conserve
the heat for up to 10 hours at the Tonopah plant so it can
produce electricity far into the evening hours after sundown,
unlike photovoltaic solar power.
The project won a $737 million loan guarantee from the U.S.
Department of Energy last year, and has attracted investments
from construction company ACS Cobra and Spanish bank Santander
.
Smith said the company had about 20 other projects in
various phases of development, including concentrated solar
projects in California and Spain and a photovoltaic solar
project in South Africa.
