Brightsource Energy Was Founded in 2006. Where Is

BRIGHTSOURCE ENERGY FAQ’s COMPANY OVERVIEW When was the company founded? BrightSource Energy was founded in 2006. Where is the company located? BrightSource is headquartered in Oakland, Calif. with operations in the United States, China, Europe, Israel and South Africa. How is BrightSource Energy financed? Who are BrightSource Energy’s investors? To date, BrightSource Energy has raised more than $615 million in private financing from blue chip investors including VantagePoint Capital Partners, Alstom, Morgan Stanley, Google.org, BP Alternative Energy, StatoilHydro Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, Black River, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and DBL Investors (a spin-off from JP Morgan), and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System. BUSINESS OVERVIEW What does BrightSource do? BrightSource Energy designs, develops and deploys concentrating solar thermal technology to produce high- value steam for electric power, petroleum and industrial-process markets worldwide. BrightSource combines breakthrough technology with world-class solar power plant design capabilities to generate clean energy reliably and responsibly. BrightSource’s solar thermal systems are designed to minimize impact to the environment and help customers reduce their dependence on fossil fuels. What markets does BrightSource compete in? Our primary market is electricity generation. Our solar steam technology can also be used in petroleum and industrial applications, like enhanced oil recovery and mining, to displace fossil fuels. Where has BrightSource’s technology been deployed? BrightSource’s technology is featured in the following facilities: Solar Development Energy Center (SEDC), BrightSource Energy’s 6 megawatt thermal solar demonstration facility in Rotem, Israel. Fully operational since 2008, the facility is used to test equipment, materials and procedures as well as construction and operating methods. Chevron/BrightSource Solar-to-Steam Demonstration Facility located in Coalinga, Calif. The 29 megawatts thermal solar-to-steam facility began operation in 2011 to support enhanced oil recovery efforts at Chevron’s oil field. Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, a 377 megawatt (net) solar thermal facility located in California’s Mojave Desert. The project began commercial operation in 2013, delivering power to PG&E and Southern California Edison. Ashalim Thermal Solar Power Station, a 121 megawatt facility to be located in Israel’s Negev desert. Construction has begun and the project is scheduled to be completed in early 2017. 1 TECHNOLOGY How does BrightSource Energy’s technology work? BrightSource Energy’s proven solar thermal tower technology produces electricity the same way as fossil fuel power plants – by creating high-temperature steam to turn a conventional turbine. However, instead of using fossil fuels to create the steam, BrightSource uses the sun. At the heart of BrightSource’s proprietary solar thermal system is a state-of-the-art solar field design, optimization software and a control system that allow for the creation of high-temperature steam. Thousands of software-controlled mirrors track the sun in two dimensions and reflect the sunlight to a boiler that sits atop a tower. When the concentrated sunlight strikes the solar receiver, it heats water to create superheated steam. The steam is either piped from the boiler to a conventional steam turbine to produce electricity, where transmission lines will carry the power to homes and businesses, or the steam is used in industrial process applications such as thermal enhanced oil recovery (EOR). By integrating conventional power block components, such as turbines, with our proprietary technology and state-of-the-art solar field design, electric power plants using our systems can deliver cost-competitive, reliable and clean power when needed most. We can also integrate proven molten salt storage or hybridize with a fossil fuel, further increasing output and reliability, and significantly reducing energy costs. Where does BrightSource test its technology? BrightSource’s technology has been operating at the company’s demonstration facility, the Solar Energy Development Center (SEDC) since June 2008. The SEDC is the only known solar thermal facility in the world to have directly produced superheated steam at over 540°C on a continuous basis through technology that is used on a utility scale. With more than six years of operations, the 6MWth facility provides unmatched operational and production data from its 1,641 heliostats, 12,000 square meters (130,000 square feet) of reflecting area and 60-meter (200 foot) receiver tower. What are the basic advantages of concentrating solar power technology? Concentrating solar thermal power (CSP) technology helps utilities and grid operators address integration challenges by delivering a more firm, reliable and controllable renewable power source compared to other variable generation resources. Because of the plant’s synchronous steam turbine generator, CSP provides important reliability benefits, such as reactive power support, dynamic voltage support, voltage control and some degree of inertia response. CSP technology compensates for solar resource variability through the ability to increase or decrease the number of mirrors focusing on the receiver. This capability adds stability to the generation profile by allowing facility operators to shape the profile as system needs change. CSP’s operational attributes can also reduce the need for back-up fossil fuel generation to meet grid reliability requirements. BrightSource’s CSP systems can also use a small amount of natural gas to achieve quicker morning startup and longer solar generation at the end of each day as well as to produce a less variable, more reliable power output compared to other solar technologies. 2 Grid Reliability Services CSP plants using synchronous generators provide the same types of support for the reliable operation of the transmission system as conventional synchronous generators. As a result, CSP plants provide numerous important reliability services, such as reactive power and voltage support, primary and secondary frequency control and some degree of inertia response. These attributes promote reliable operation of the transmission grid by controlling voltage and frequency within an acceptable band. The primary grid reliability benefits of CSP are described in more detail below. Reactive Power and Voltage Support The power system requires reactive power from generators, synchronous condensers, capacitors or other voltage support devices to support power transfer and maintain operating voltage levels under both normal and emergency conditions. On the one hand, inadequate reactive power can result in power transfer reductions and voltage collapse and thus could lead to widespread blackouts. On the other hand, the over-supply of reactive power can increase voltage at points in the system to very high levels and create an unintentional electrical arc that can damage the grid and customer equipment and create unsafe operating conditions. Power system voltages are affected by a variety of factors, including customer loads, the distance power is transmitted to the loads, and the amount of loading on the power lines. Because the power system conditions are variable and constantly changing, the amount of reactive power needed at various points in the transmission system to maintain adequate voltage is also variable and constantly changing. As such, the power system must include devices capable of constantly and automatically adjusting (injecting and withdrawing) the reactive power supply at specific points in the system. The synchronous generators in BrightSource’s plants are this type of device – they are capable of automatically adjusting the reactive power supply through the exciter/automatic voltage regulator control under normal (all facilities in-service) conditions and under contingency conditions. During and after sudden changes in grid conditions (e.g., during a fault or following the outage of transmission facilities), fast and automatic injecting and withdrawing of reactive power is crucial to maintain voltage stability and reliable system operations. In addition, if the system voltage begins to collapse, fast automatic increases in reactive power output are required to raise the voltage and prevent a collapse that could cause a blackout. Synchronous generators are capable of providing this grid reliability service and do so in a manner more effectively than other devices such as Static VAR Compensators (SVC) or Static Synchronous Compensators (STATCOM). The reactive power provided by SVC and STATCOM decreases as the voltage drops, making them less effective as the voltage collapses, exactly when reactive power is needed. Synchronous generators will help prevent excessive voltage drop by providing automatic and continuously the same amount of reactive power independent of system voltage levels; thus, better supporting the transmission system as voltage decreases and thus helping to prevent voltage collapse. Frequency Control To maintain system frequency in an acceptable band, the system needs to hold resources in reserve to provide frequency control. This is accomplished in two ways – primary frequency control and secondary frequency control. Primary frequency control is the ability to automatically and autonomously adjust 3 output rapidly (within seconds) after the sudden outage of other generators. Secondary frequency control refers to the ability to respond

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