Broadlands EVP, Bryan Fortay, Presents State of the International Concentrating Solar Market at Conference in Spain

Philadelphia -- Free-Press-Release.com-- Nov 30, 2010 -- Broadlands Financial Group's Executive Vice President, Bryan Fortay, led two panel discussions and presented an overview of the U.S. and worldwide concentrating solar power markets at the 2010 Concentrating Solar Power (“CSP”) Today Conference in Seville, Spain on November 16 and 17. The conference, touted as the premier CSP conference in the world, brings together more than 600 industry leaders, solar technologists, banks, investors, engineers, real estate developers and EPC contractors from four continents.

According to Mr. Fortay, Broadlands is a boutique consulting firm headquartered just ten minutes from Philadelphia, but the company has built a reputation for providing world class project controls and program management that reaches Spain and beyond. “I was approached at the conference many times by people who had heard about our success on Nevada Solar One or Rajasthan Solar One. Our clients were selling Broadlands and praising the company for its unique approach to managing construction and development risk. The greatest compliment a company can receive is the one that comes when your clients sell your services for you, “Fortay said.

Unlike photovoltaic (PV) power systems, which convert sunlight directly to electricity using the semiconductor materials in solar panels, CSP technologies concentrate the sun's energy using reflective devices such as troughs or mirror panels. In a CSP trough plant, for example, rows of concave mirrors direct the suns energy onto a tube containing a heat transfer fluid (“HTF”). The HTF gets hotter as is moves through the solar field. Eventually the resulting heat energy is used to generate steam and power a conventional turbine and produce electricity.

Spain is the world leader in concentrating solar power plants in operation thanks to a lucrative feed-in-tariff program that spurred development the last four years. The United States is second, recently relinquishing the leader position to the Spanish primarily due to a lack of consistent, long-term national renewable energy strategy, difficult environmental and land challenges and the recent economic downturn. But, the U.S. may regain its position as world leader in the near-term.

“There are some big concentrating solar projects in the U.S. pipeline,” Fortay said. “BrightSource just announced that it broke ground on its Ivanpah project, which will bring another 387 megawatts of CSP to the U.S. We will have to wait to see how many of the 7,000 U.S. projects that currently hold power purchase agreements will get to construction. The program management and project controls that Broadlands designs and executes for renewable developers can expedite the development process, encourage the participation of investors and financiers and protect against cost overruns and other project risks,” Fortay added.

Broadlands Financial Group is an international business solutions consultancy providing critical risk management, loss control and training services to banks, commercial lenders, real estate owners and government entities. “Broadlands is on the cutting edge of concentrating solar thermal development," said Fortay. "We have designed program and risk management strategies for world renowned CSP projects including Nevada Solar One and now Rajasthan Solar One, the first CSP project to be built under India's new National Solar Mission. Broadlands is also one of the few companies in the world that brings concentrating trough, concentrating tower and photovoltaic experience to its clients’ solar initiatives,” Fortay said.

Broadlands was the owner’s choice to provide owner’s representative services and project controls on the largest Concentrating Solar Trough Power Plant built in the world in over 20 years – the 64 MW Nevada Solar One,. and on the 10.5 MW photovoltaic plant, PA Solar Park I. Broadlands provided post construction cost analysis and best practice construction strategies on a 5 MW CSP tower project and is the owner’s representative on the first CSP plant being built under India’s new national tariff program. Broadlands is also the strategic consultant on a 100 MW wind initiative for a major government authority. Broadlands’ professionals bring diverse energy project experience, including nuclear and biomass. The company also employs personnel that worked on the design of the Luz SEGS VIII and IX 80 MW projects.

“We have a proven approach to decrease development costs, mitigate construction risk and drive on time project completion of solar plants,” Mr. Fortay added. “We are proud to be asked to share our successes at events such as the CSP Today Conference in Seville. The conference was another opportunity for Broadlands to showcase its world class solutions to decreasing construction costs and meeting construction schedules."

www.broadlandsonline.com, Broadlands Solar Energy: 610-664-8800

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Broadlands Financial Group, LLC
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