Ivanpah Solar Project Reaches Halfway Mark and Peak of Construction Employment

  Ivanpah Solar Project Reaches Halfway Mark and Peak of Construction
  Employment

   Over 2,100 workers and staff mobilized on site at world’s largest solar
                               thermal project

Business Wire

IVANPAH, Calif. -- August 07, 2012

NRG Energy, Google, BrightSource Energy and construction partner Bechtel
announced that the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (Ivanpah SEGS) has
reached the halfway mark of construction on the world’s largest solar thermal
project. Ivanpah has also reached its peak construction workforce, with more
than 2,100 construction workers and project support staff on-site. The $2.2
billion project is on-track to be complete in 2013.

“Large-scale solar projects like Ivanpah create thousands of construction jobs
and provide clean, renewable power to help meet state renewable energy goals,”
said Tom Doyle, CEO of NRG Solar. “We believe that encouraging public and
private investment in our domestic clean energy industry through successful
projects like Ivanpah ultimately will pay dividends by helping to secure our
country’s economic future.”

“Ivanpah is an iconic infrastructure project that will set the course for the
future of renewable energy in the US and around the world,” said John Woolard,
President & CEO, BrightSource Energy. “We are tremendously proud of the
significant accomplishments being made towards Ivanpah’s completion, and look
forward to powering California’s homes and businesses with clean and reliable
electricity in the coming year.”

“Ivanpah will be the largest project in the world to use this potentially
transformative solar technology,” said Rick Needham, Director of Energy &
Sustainability for Google. “We hope that our support spurs further investment
to deploy innovative, scalable renewable energy solutions around the world.”

About the Ivanpah Project

The 370 (net) megawatt Ivanpah solar power facility is located on
approximately 3,500 acres of federal land in California’s Mojave Desert
managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior‘s Bureau of Land Management
(BLM). The three individual power plants at Ivanpah will feature BrightSource
Energy’s solar thermal power tower technology to produce clean, renewable
energy from the sun. When completed in 2013, the facility will nearly double
the amount of solar thermal electricity produced in the US.

Power generated from the plants will be sold under separate contracts with
Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) and Southern California Edison (SCE). The
first unit will begin supplying power to PG&E in mid 2013, with units two and
three delivering power to Southern California and PG&E respectively by late of
2013. In total, the project will power more than 140,000 homes and businesses
in California. Ivanpah will help its customers PG&E and SCE meet the state of
California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requirements, legislation
requiring each investor-owned utility to procure 33 percent of its energy
portfolio from renewable resources by 2020.

Technology Provided by BrightSource Energy

Ivanpah will employ BrightSource’s power tower solar thermal technology, which
generates power the same way as traditional power plants – by creating high
temperature steam to turn a turbine. However, instead of using fossil fuels or
nuclear power to create the steam, BrightSource uses the sun’s energy.
BrightSource’s system uses a state-of-the-art field of software-controlled
mirrors, called heliostats, to reflect the sun’s energy to a boiler atop a
tower to produce the high temperature and high-pressure steam. The steam can
then be integrated with conventional power plant components to produce
predictable, reliable and cost-competitive clean energy.

Creating Jobs Locally and Nationally

The $2.2 billion project is an investment into America’s future with
substantial indirect economic benefits locally and across the nation. To date,
the project’s engineering and construction contractor Bechtel has retained
over 2,000 construction workers to build the plant, in addition to the more
than 100 engineering and support staff on site. Bechtel signed a project labor
agreement with the State Building and Construction Trades Council of
California (SBCTC) and the Building & Construction Trades Council of San
Bernardino and Riverside counties to ensure that California‘s local workforce
benefits from the project. The project requires the work of skilled craft
workers and engineers from a wide variety of trades and disciplines, including
pipefitters, millwrights, carpenters, electricians, laborers and civil
engineers.

The project will provide $400 million in local and state tax revenues, and
produce $650 million in wages, over its first 30-year life. The majority of
the project’s supply chain is being sourced domestically across 17 U.S.
states, driving investments throughout the country and creating additional
jobs in other areas that have been adversely affected by the economic
downturn.

Construction Progress at Ivanpah

“The scale and complexity of the Ivanpah project presented first-of-a-kind
construction challenges that required innovative thinking and execution at
every level,” said Jim Ivany, president of Bechtel’s Renewable Power business.
“We created lean approaches to multiple phases of the project, including
heliostat assembly installation and construction of the project’s steel
towers, each topped with 2,200-ton solar receiver steam generators. The
processes we developed enabled the team to successfully advance the project to
support electricity generation in 2013.”

The three-unit Ivanpah SEGS commenced construction in October 2010 and is
halfway complete. In the power block area, home to the major power plant
equipment, workers have erected three steel tower structures to support the
boilers which extend to a height of 459 feet, welding interconnecting pipe
inside the boiler and installing power plant equipment. In the solar field,
workers are installing the project’s 173,000 pylons and heliostats, which are
assembled on-site at a rate of 500 each day. To date, workers have installed
more than 100,000 steel pylons and nearly 50,000 heliostats. For more details
on construction progress, please see our bi-monthly Update from Ivanpah.

Net Benefit to Taxpayers

Financing of this project was facilitated by the Department of Energy’s 1703
loan guarantee program. The project's power purchase agreement, as well as its
aggressive management of cost and schedule, assure that the loan will be paid
back, with interest, to the benefit of taxpayers.

An Environmentally Responsible Project

The Ivanpah project will reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by more than
400,000 tons annually, which is the equivalent of taking more than 70,000 cars
off the road. BrightSource’s system is also designed to minimize impacts on
the natural environment. In addition to being one of the most land-efficient
renewable energy technologies, BrightSource’s low impact heliostat layout is
flexible, allowing the solar field to be built around the natural contours of
the land and avoid areas of sensitive vegetation. And in order to conserve
scarce water resources, the technology employs an air-cooling system to
convert the steam back into water in a closed-loop cycle. By using an
air-cooled condenser, BrightSource’s technology uses more than 90 percent less
water than older technology parabolic trough plants with wet cooling.

About BrightSource Energy, Inc.

BrightSource Energy, Inc. is a leader in the design and development of
concentrating solar thermal technology used to produce high-value electricity
and steam for power, petroleum and process markets. To learn more about
BrightSource Energy and concentrating solar thermal energy, visit
www.brightsourceenergy.com.

About NRG

NRG (NYSE: NRG) is at the forefront of changing how people think about and use
energy. A Fortune 500 company, NRG is a pioneer in developing cleaner and
smarter energy choices for our customers: whether as one of the largest solar
power developers in the country, or by building the first privately funded
electric vehicle charging infrastructure or by giving customers the latest
smart energy solutions to better manage their energy use. Our diverse power
generating facilities can support more than 20 million homes and our retail
electricity providers – Reliant, Green Mountain Energy Company and Energy Plus
– serve more than two million customers. More information is available at
www.nrgenergy.com.

About Google Inc.

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a global technology leader focused on improving the
ways people connect with information. Google’s innovations in web search and
advertising have made its website a top internet property and its brand one of
the most recognized in the world. For more information, visit
www.google.com/about.html.

About Bechtel:

Bechtel is among the most respected engineering, project management, and
construction companies in the world. We stand apart for our ability to get the
job done right—no matter how big, how complex or how remote. Bechtel operates
through five global business units that specialize in civil infrastructure;
power generation, communications and transmission; mining and metals; oil, gas
and chemicals; and government services.

Since its founding in 1898, Bechtel has worked on more than 22,000 projects in
140 countries on all seven continents. Today, our 53,000 employees team with
customers, partners, and suppliers on diverse projects in nearly 50 countries.
www.bechtel.com.

Contact:

For BrightSource:
Kristin Hunter, 510-250-8800
KHunter@BrightSourceEnergy.com
or
For NRG:
Lori Neuman
Lori.neuman@nrgenergy.com
or
For Google:
Parag Chokshi
PChokshi@google.com
or
For Bechtel:
Sonia Taylor
STaylor4@bechtel.com