SOLAR POWER PLANTS IN THE TIMES

In this assessment of solar power plants, a NY Times reporter describes the Nevada Solar One control room operator scanning the sky “to check his fuel supply.” Nice.

As frequently covered in NewEnergyNews (see BIGGEST SOLAR PLANT IN THE WORLD), solar power plants are a different order of solar energy generation from the small rooftop installations commonly seen on homes and businesses.

Two next-generation prototype solar power plants have recently gone on line, 10 more are planned in the U.S. and many more are planned throughout the world. The 10 planned for the U.S. could produce as much power as 3 nuclear reactors but while a nuclear facility takes at least 5 years to build, a solar plant can be on line in 2 years.

Some of the new solar plants will test storage systems that can make possible 24-hour generation. There is enough sun on Southwestern deserts to power the entire U.S. - if there is grid to transmit the megawatts.

Here’s a new one: The Times reporter defines a megawatt as the power to run 1000 room air conditioners.

Solar power plant technology has been proven for two decades but lost favor to cheap natural gas in the 1990s. With rising gas and oil prices, interest has renewed. The newest solar power plants generate electricity at 15 to 20 cents per kilowatt-hour and subsidies make them competitive now. The cost is expected to drop to 10 cents per kilowatt-hour with economies of scale. Coal-fired power is presently 7 cents per kilowatt-hour and is expected to go toward 10 cents when greenhouse gas emissions are constrained by a cap-and-trade system or a tax.

Various solar power plant technologies are still competing to achieve the highest efficiency and most storage capacity. Suppliers are building manufacturing centers and expecting a boom. Land acquisition and environmental impacts must be handled. Transmission is necessary. Transmission is necessary. Transmission is necessary...

This Ausra schematic demonstrates the power plant concept and highlights the storage aspect. (click to enlarge)

Turning Glare Into Watts
Matthew L. Wald, March 6, 2008 (NY Times)

WHO
Aaron Boucher, control room, Nevada Solar One; Frederick H. Morse, former employee, DOE/solar industry consultant; Revis James, renewables expert, Electric Power Research Institute; Donald E. Brandt, chief executive, Pinnacle West; Terrence J. Collins, environmental expert/professor, Carnegie Mellon University

Nevada Solar One parabolic mirrors and fluid containing pipes. (click to enlarge)

WHAT
Solar power plants, aka solar thermal power plants, aka concentrating solar photovoltaics (CSP)

WHEN
- The solar power plant concept was proved in the 1980s at a series of projects in California’s Mojave Desert.
- California’s PG&E has committed to new solar power plants in an effort to meet the state’s requirement of 20% electricity from New Energy by 2010.
- Arizona Public Service’s Pinnacle West has committed to a 280 megawatt plant to be built by Spain’s Abengoa Solar by 2011.

SEGS proved the concept back in the 1980s but cheap natural gas postponed development. (click to enlarge)

WHERE
- Two prototype plants were recently opened in Nevada and another 10 are in advanced planning in California, Arizona and Nevada.
- Eight plants are under construction in Spain, Algeria and Morocco and another nine are being planned in Spain, Algeria, Morocco, Israel, Mexico, China, South Africa and Egypt.

WHY
- The new and planned U.S. plants are expected to meet the dramatically rising power needs of big and expanding Southwestern cities like L.A., Phoenix and Las Vegas.
- The 1980s Mojave Desert projects eventually reached a 354-megawatt capacity but lost out to cheap natural gas in the 1990s.
- Nevada Solar One, built by Spain’s Acciona, uses a 182,000 parabolic mirrors to heat a black pipe with fluid inside. The fluid boils water, the steam turns a generator: 64 megawatts.
- Ausra, an Australian company transplanted to the U.S., is building a factory in Las Vegas to make mirrors.
- Schott, a German company, is building a factory in Albuquerque to make tubes.

Southern California may be on the brink of huge solar power plant developments involving the Stirling concentrator. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Revis James, renewables expert, Electric Power Research Institute: “Unless there’s a subsidy involved, it doesn’t seem like a very attractive technology…”
- Donald E. Brandt, chief executive, Pinnacle West: “The key is, the solar technology has advanced…[The Abengoa Solar project in Arizona is] a critical size; it’s a real power plant; it’s meaningful; it’s beyond the demonstration stage.”
- Terrence J. Collins, environmental expert/professor, Carnegie Mellon University: “The one thing that’s eventually going to raise its head is desert biodiversity, and the land area itself…Whatever you do, you’ve got to have the wiring…”