Author: Joseph Torrente

Chinese power plant produces round-the-clock electricity with combined solar power and biomass

A 2,000-megawatt concentrating solar power plant borne by a United States-China partnership will soon produce round-the-clock energy with the integration of biomass energy to the primary generation technology.

Located in Yulin, Shaanxi province, the solar thermal plant is the first of its kind in China and shows cost-effective technologies that could serve as a role model for future solar development worldwide.

The joint venture’s solar thermal plant collects solar energy through fields of mirrors called heliostats, which focus the sun’s rays on a water-filled receiver. The plant, also called concentrating solar power technology, then generates power from the turbines which use high-pressure steam created by the vaporization of water.

But the plant will also use biomass energy from adjacent biomass facilities, allowing electricity generation even at night.

California-based eSolar and Shandong Penglai Electrical Power expect the first 92 MW to be running by the end of 2011. The rest of the solar thermal plant is scheduled for completion by 2020.

Raed Sherif, vice president of international market development of eSolar, said the modular design of the plant offered higher efficiency and fundamental cost reductions in construction and design, which lowers the overall cost of the plant by about half of other solar thermal facilities.

Eric Wang, Penglai Electric senior vice president of international business development, said China’s manufacturing strength, along with eSolar’s unique design, would significantly reduce installation and solar field equipment costs which are usually the two largest expenditures for building a solar power plant.

The joint project, which married solar and biofuel technologies, could eventually allow solar to compete with other renewable energy sources without government subsidies, Mr. Sherif added.

Shandong Penglai Electric will manufacture the majority of eSolar’s equipment, as well as manage the construction of the plant.

Both companies will share intellectual rights to any innovations developed during their collaboration in China.

China is currently the market leader in photovoltaic manufacturing and is a large exporter of solar power equipment. The government has set a target of increasing renewable energy by 15 percent by 2020.

Developer of the world’s largest concentrating solar power project receives $1.37 billion loan guarantee

The United States Department of Energy has guaranteed $1.37 billion in conditional loans for BrightSource Energy Inc. to finance the world’s largest concentrating solar power project that will rise in Ivanpah, California.

The announcement comes after BrightSource, the solar power plant developer, submitted an alternative design for the project which was previously planned to generate 440 megawatts but was cut down to 392 MW to make it less threatening to the habitat of the desert tortoise and rare plants in the area.

The new design was submitted to the California Energy Commission and the Bureau of Land Management on February 11.

The loan guarantee to BrightSource comes from the Energy Department’s 2005 program which supports renewable energy technologies. The loan guarantee is tied to financial and environmental requirements which the company must meet.

The Ivanpah solar project, which will use solar collectors to catch sunshine for heating steam turbine solutions, will be made up of three separate solar farms.

The project would power 140,000 homes while cutting down emissions by more than 400,000 tons every year, according to its proponents. Construction is expected to begin in the second half of the year.

Approximately two-thirds of the power generated from Ivanpah will be sold to Pacific Gas and Electric, while the rest will go to Southern California Edison.

BrightSource and Bechtel Corporation, the engineering and construction contractor for the Ivanpah project, expect to employ 1,000 jobs throughout construction and 86 permanent jobs afterwards.

The project is also expected to provide $400 million in local and state tax revenues over its first 30-year life.

“As home to some of the world’s best solar fields and the nation’s largest green economy, it is no surprise the world’s largest solar energy project would choose California,” said California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“Our ambitious environmental policies are promoting the growth of clean, reliable energy in our communities and growing green jobs up and down the state,” he added.

In May 2009, BrightSource raised more than $160 million from its investors including Google, British Petroleum Alternative Energy, Chevron Technology Ventures, StatoilHydro Venture, Black River, VantagePoint Venture Partners, Morgan Stanley, DBL Investors and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

Oakland, California-based BrightSource Energy is the only solar company selected as technology pioneer by the World Economic Forum in 2009.

Fluor will help build a 50-megawatt concentrating solar power plant in Badajoz, Spain

By Oliver M. Bayani

Fluor will help build a 50-megawatt concentrating solar power plant in Badajoz, Spain after being chosen by project developer Elecnor S.A.

Working through an engineering services contract, Fluor’s operations in Asturias and Madrid will provide design and construction assistance to the project which would use parabolic troughs. The troughs will collect sunlight to heat a liquid that will generate steam.

The solar plant’s developers expect to finish building the plant by the second quarter of 2011. Fluor started working with Elecnor on the project in 2009.

Dave Dunning, president of Fluor’s power group, said concentrating solar power technology has gained momentum in Spain and throughout the world.

He said a number of solar energy companies are already banking on the solar technology which has an efficiency advantages over solar cells.

In May 2009, Abengoa Solar began constructing two power plants in Écija in Seville. Planned to go online in 2011, the two plants with a combined output capacity of 100 MW will generate enough electricity to supply 52,000 households and reduce carbon emissions by 31,400 tons annually.

Abengoa is also developing the 1.2 billion euro ($1.6 billion) Solucar Platform complex. This 300-MW project, when completed in 2013, could provide enough electricity for 153,000 households. Avoided emissions are estimated at 185,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year.

Rather than producing electricity directly from the sun’s rays, concentrated solar technology captures sunshine using mirros to make steam needed to drive a turbine generator.

But Fluor (NYSE:{yootooltip mode=[cursor] title=[FLR] width=[556] display=[inline]}

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) also banks on the prospects of solar cells, currently building one of the world’s largest polysilicon production plants in China and another solar panel manufacturing plant in Singapore.

Nature concerns prompt BrightSource Energy to revamp solar thermal project that would be U.S.’ largest

Concerns about the endangerment of a desert tortoise and a number of rare plants have prompted BrightSource Energy Inc. to revamp its solar thermal project in California that would be the largest of its kind in the United States when completed.

The company plans to reduce the size of the 4,000-acre Ivanpah facility by 12 percent, cutting its electricity generation to from 440 megawatts to 392 MW.

The area covered by one of the facility’s three solar plants will also be shrunk by 23 percent to avoid a disturbing wildlife.

BrightSource submitted the revised plans to California’s Energy Commission and the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management. If approved, it would be the first solar thermal power plant built in California after about two decades and will still be the largest of its kind.

“This project is a key step in meeting our nation’s climate and clean energy goals, and proves that we
can address global warming with utility-scale solar while protecting sensitive desert lands and habitat,” said George Frampton, former chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

The plant is scheduled to begin construction in the second half of 2010. BrightSource said the project can produce enough clean energy to power 140,000 homes while cutting down emissions by more than 400,000 tons annually.

The plant will further lessen its desert water consumption by using an air-cooling system which requires 25 times less water than competing solar thermal technologies that use wet cooling.

Solar thermal technologies, or concentrating solar power, concentrate sunshine on collectors that, in turn, heat a liquid solution to create steam. Steam runs the electric generators.

The Department of Interior has prioritized the BrightSource project to receive Recovery Act funds. It has also been short-listed to receive a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.

The project is expected to employ 1,000 jobs throughout its construction and provide 86 permanent jobs.

Approximately two-thirds of the power generated from Ivanpah will be sold to Pacific Gas and Electric, while Southern California Edison will purchase the rest.

Oregon-based BrightSource, which is backed by Google, Chevron and British Petroleum, has signed contracts to supply 2,600 MW of electricity to California utilities striving to meet a state mandate to obtain 33 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020.

–   Oliver M. Bayani

Researchers from Abu Dhabi and Japan launch new concentrated solar power project in Masdar

Industry and research groups from Abu Dhabi and Japan have launched a new concentrated solar power (C.S.P.) project in Masdar City using beam down technology.

Unlike conventional solar tower technologies, which use mirrors called heliostats to direct the sun rays onto a receiver at the top of a central tower, the beam down process uses an inverted design where the receiver is located at the base of the tower.

The inverted design reportedly can reduce generation costs by preventing energy losses from the pumping of fluid to an elevated receiver found in traditional C.S.P. plants.

Initial tests for the technology yielded positive results and could revolutionize the way solar towers are built in the future, according to Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, chief executive of Masdar.

Masdar, the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Japan’s Cosmo Oil Company and the Tokyo Institute of Technology will work on the solar project.

Masdar, a subsidiary of state-owned Mubadala Development Company, is behind the Masdar City project, promoted as the world’s first carbon-neutral city. The city will run on renewable energy and will deal with its waste through composting, waste-to-energy treatment or recycling.

–   Oliver M. Bayani

Torresol Energy’s 100-megawatt concentrating solar power plant to test an advanced technology

One of this year’s first major solar power projects that aims to test an advanced technology for generating electricity after sundown has secured a $760 million loan.

Torresol Energy’s 100-megawatt concentrating solar power plant to be built in Andalucia, Spain in March will test new technologies, including one which would enable it to continue providing electricity over seven hours after the sun has set.

Named the Valle 1 and Valle 2 solar thermal plants, they will use molten salt to store heat for generating steam that drives turbines to generate electricity.

Torresol did not name the lender, but last year it was among the applicants for a 330 million euro ($466.49 million) loan from the European Investment Bank for the same project.

Torresol said the two solar projects, each producing 50 MW, will create 3,200 new jobs in its two years of construction. Total costs will reach $1 billion.

Valle 1 and Valle 2 will produce enough electricity for 80,000 homes, while discarding 90,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions yearly.

Over the years, C.S.P. technologies have strived to operate longer while relying only on solar power. But C.S.P. technologies such as those that use parabolic troughs still produce about a fifth of their electricity from fossil fuels.

“A significant feature of these plants will be their ability to produce electricity at night and at times of poor sunlight, which is obviously an important consideration for consumers who require and demand uninterrupted electricity supplies,” Torresol chairman Enrique Sendagorta said.

Torresol is a joint venture between Masdar, which is planning to build a 100 percent renewable energy-powered city in the United Arab Emirates, and Sener, a Spanish engineering company which developed the molten salt to be used in the plant.

The Valle 1 and Valle 2 solar power projects are part of investments totalling $1.4 billion across three C.S.P. projects in one year, Torresol said.

The Gemasolar Central Tower Plant, a 17-MW project under construction in Seville, was financed by the European Investment Bank.

–   Eric Dorente

National Thermal Power Corporation to invest 30 billion rupees to reach 301 megawatts of capacity

State-owned National Thermal Power Corporation, India’s largest power generator, plans to invest around 30 billion rupees ($643.3 million) to reach 301 megawatts of generation capacity by March 2014 through solar power, reported online business magazine domain-b.com.

Of the 301-MW target, 190 MW is planned to be sourced through solar thermal technology while the remaining 111 MW will come from solar photovoltaic sources.

The Indian government has an ambitious goal to generate 1,300 MW of solar power by 2013 and 5,000 MW by 2022.

The state-run company has already taken up a 15-MW solar project at Anta in Rajasthan. The power generated from this station will be fed into the grid.

National Thermal Power Corporation currently largely depends on coal-fired power plants for the bulk of its installed capacity of over 30,000 MW.

–   Oliver M. Bayani

Swiss solar company SwissINSO S.A. has entered into a technology transfer and research agreement with one of Europe’s premier academic institutions for the latter’s solar energy production technology

Swiss solar company SwissINSO S.A. has entered into a technology transfer and research agreement with one of Europe’s premier academic institutions for the latter’s solar energy production technology.

Through the agreement with the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (E.P.F.L.), SwissINSO will gain access to a new process for glazing solar thermal collectors. The process uses the deposition of a colored coating layer that is opaque to the eye but is transparent to solar energy.

E.P.F.L’s solar energy and building physics laboratories developed the technology. The agreement includes intellectual property rights on future developments made by the laboratory in this field.

The laboratory’s new technique for glazing solar thermal collectors is a proprietary nanotechnology developed by a Dr. Andreas Schueler and his team over the last seven years. Three full scale solar thermal collectors have already been manufactured using the technique.

SwissINSO S.A. utilizes its intellectual property assets to provide environmentally friendly, innovative solar energy solutions and related technology to meet growing global needs.

E.P.F.L. is one of the premier academic institutions in Switzerland and the continent. It is associated with several specialized research institutes and, with its sister institution in Zurich, is said to be among the most preeminent educational and applied research establishments in the world.

–   Katrice R. Jalbuena