The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 13 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Woolard: California regulators tried to halt Ivanpah over a tarp's color
“We happened to have a brown cover to that temporary, 18 month manufacturing facility, and the CEC, California Energy Commission tried to stop all construction, which basically would have killed the project, because the color of the tarp was not the right color…”
Woolard: BrightSource leadership concluded CSP was no longer competitive in 2012
“That's when we basically said, we can no longer win game. We are no longer competitive. And that was a different message. We'd said, well, maybe you could, and you could sell in different attributes. But at that point, we said, this is no longer a competitive …”
Woolard: Developing flat-cost tech against rapidly cheapening competitors is unwinnable
“If you're asked to develop something that's price is flat to increasing, when your competitor's price is decreasing every day, you're asked to do something you can't win at.”
Woolard: BrightSource faced existential risk by failing to pivot away from CSP
“I think if I had something to do over, I would have been more Firm and more strong that the company was facing not just a decision, but an existential risk. And I would have been a lot stronger on that, saying that this company will not exist if we do not move…”
Woolard: Ivanpah operates at roughly 90% of its design capacity
“Ivanpah had some awkward parts ramping up, but ultimately delivered and ramps and produces power and energy today at about 90% of its original design capacity.”
Woolard: BrightSource cut costs to $3.90/W while PV fell to $2.50/W
“Well, so the engineering team was working really diligently and really hard to do whatever they could on costs, and our costs were going from, say, five dollars a watt to four dollars and 30 cents a watt and maybe down to about three 90 a watt. Meanwhile, at t…”
Woolard: BrightSource's power tower design cut solar thermal costs by ~40%
“It reduced, it was about a 40% cost reduction from the design alone.”
Woolard: BrightSource Built On-Site Automated Line for 173,000 Heliostats
“We had a facility complete with a robotized automated assembly line where we were going to assemble a 173,000 heliostats because it made more sense to assemble and do the manufacturing on site rather than do it remote and take a fragile facility manufactured p…”
Woolard: Solar towers had half the cost of silicon PV in 2005
“So silicon PV was around nine dollars a watt, and the tower technology we had was around six dollars a watt, dropping to five dollars a lot. So it was more or less half the price, And it could produce, if you put it in the right site, it could produce at aroun…”
Woolard: Solar PV fell to $3/watt by 2009, undercutting CSP by 2011
“By the time you got to 2009, it was down to maybe three dollars a watt. And three dollars a watt became an interesting number. So, That's when the U.S. Team started to pay attention and say, you know, this is something that is now, it's been cut in half. It's …”
Woolard: Ivanpah was the largest tax equity financing ever done
“And so the tax equity financing component is really important because this point this would have been the largest tax equity financing or was the largest tax equity financing ever done.”
Woolard: Ivanpah tortoise head start program raised survival from 2% to 90%
“We also then started and agreed to do what's called a head start program for tortoise, where basically of the eggs that are actually laid only two percent survive. So we took pregnant tortoise, we found them, and we moved them, we took Eggs, we, and we created…”
Woolard: 2008 financial crisis erased Morgan Stanley's tax equity appetite overnight
“All the taxable income of all of the Wall Street banks. So they, their tax equity appetite went from very large to zero, overnight. Everybody was fired from Morgan Stanley, we lost our board member, we lost our tax equity sponsor, and that was the pivotal part…”