Luz II, Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of BrightSource, provides product development and engineering, project engineering and manage ment, and solar field manufacturing and supply services.
Luz II is headquartered in Jerusalem, Israel.

The BrightSource technical team previously developed the solar trough technology used in nine SEGS plants built in Southern California between 1984 and 1990.  With more experience in engineering, design, and construction than any solar company, the team knew that the move to higher concentrations, higher temperatures, and the higher efficiencies of the power tower provided the strongest commercially viable approach .

The technology that resulted, DPT 550, operates much more efficiently than the older solar trough technology, and is much less expensive to build. DPT 550 plants will provide the lowest cost from “photon to electron” ever achieved in a solar power plant. And, because it is based on the proven power tower approach, DPT 550 technology is ready for implementation in commercial power plants today.

BrightSource Energy’s Dynamic Power Tower (DPT) technology is fundamentally simple.  DPT solar power plants use mirrors (known as heliostats) to harness the sun much like a camper uses a magnifying glass to start a fire. Thousands of small, flat mirrors reflect the sun’s rays onto a boiler atop the central Tower.  Each mirror in a BrightSource plant will provide enough solar energy to power one home. When the concentrated sunlight strikes the boiler’s pipes, it heats the water inside to 550°C – nearly 1000° F – the temperature necessary for the plant to achieve the highest operating efficiency.

This very high temperature steam is piped from the boiler to a standard turbine where electricity is generated. From here, transmission lines carry the power to homes and businesses.  And nothing is wasted.  In order to conserve precious desert water, BrightSource uses air-cooling to convert the steam back into water. The water is then returned to the boiler in a closed circuit. 

The small mirrors utilized in the DPT 550 technology are much simpler to manufacture and less costly to install than the parabolic mirrors used in solar troughs.  Like a sunflower, the heliostats follow the sun in two dimensions, enabling them to achieve a much higher efficiency than other solar thermal technologies. Each heliostat is individually installed and controlled, resulting in greater flexibility in site configuration, and requiring much less site preparation.