Solar Power Plant Builder BrightSource Energy Pulls IPO

Solar Power Plant Builder BrightSource Energy Pulls IPO BrightSource Energy , the California solar thermal power plant builder backed by Google , NRG Energy , Morgan Stanley and other heavy-hitters, abruptly pulled its initial public offering on the eve of its planned debut Thursday, citing "adverse market conditions. has been caught up in presidential election-year politics. solar market, have favored photovoltaic projects over the solar thermal facilities built by companies like BrightSource. The company had sought to raise $182. Falling natural gas prices have also made it harder for solar to compete for utility contracts. The company's first project, Ivanpah, is under construction in the Mojave Desert in California 45 miles southeast of Las Vegas and BrightSource has signed contracts with utilities to deliver 2,600 megawatts of electricity from other projects to be constructed. BrightSource Energy, which is well capitalized and the recipient of a $1. With a 75% fall in solar panel prices over the past three years, utilities in California, the largest U. BrightSource initially filed its S-1 on Earth Day last year and withdrew the filing 11 days before Earth Day 2012. Unlike photovoltaic developers that build massive arrays of solar panels like those found on residential rooftops to directly convert sunlight into electricity, BrightSource uses mirrors called heliostats to focus the sun on a tower topped by a water-filled boiler. Against that backdrop, BrightSource's solar thermal competitors Solar Millennium of Germany and U. "Solar thermal electricity is a power business and it moves on a similar time scale: three to five years," Nathaniel Bullard, a veteran solar analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, wrote in an e-mail. BrightSource's IPO had been seen as a test of Big Solar's interest to investors but the solar market has been in upheaval as Germany and Spain have moved to ratchet back subsidies while the future of incentives for renewable energy in the U. market and group of solar panel manufacturers filed an unfair trade complaint against China. startup Stirling Energy Systems filed for bankruptcy in recent months. As solar panel prices have plummeted, Chinese photovoltaic module makers grabbed a large share of the U. "It has even filed to build new projects, which none of its competitors have done," said Bullard. Solar Power Plant Builder BrightSource Energy Pulls IPO Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 13/04/2012