Venture Capital - Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Solar's BrightSource Shines With $115M Investment
Oakland, CA's BrightSource Energy is making its parents proud with a $115M round. It has now raised to date to over $160M.
Investors were led by VantagePoint Venture Partnerswith Google.org, BP Alternative Energy, StatoilHydro Venture and Black River. Existing investors did not head for the exits. They are Morgan Stanley, DBL Investors, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Chevron Technology Ventures.
Brightrource runs utility-scale solar power. BrightSource can thank regional energy giant PG&E for the round. In March 2008, BrightSource entered into power purchase agreements with PG&E for 900MW+ of electricity. BrightSource is developing asolar power plants in the Mojave Desert with construction of the first plant planned to start in 2009.
Given the price spikes in natural gas, we can certainly understand why investors are into Brightsource. Land is cheap in the Mojave and the government is more than happy to lend a hand.
View - Brightsource site
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