11 MW Solar Tower Plant Dedicated in Spain

An Abengoa (XETRA:AYO.DE) press release reveals the dedication of an 11 MW Solar Tower, the PS10, the world's first commercial solar tower power plant. Solucar, an Abengoa company, constructed the plant in the municipality of Sanlucar la Mayor (Seville),which will be operated by Abengoa.

The 11 megawatt PS10 solar power plant will generate 24.3 GW/hr per year of clean energy and comprises 624 movable heliostats (mirrors). Each of the mirrors has a surface area of 120 square meters (1292 square feet) which concentrates the Sun's rays to the top of a 115-meter (377 foot) high tower where the solar receiver and a steam turbine are located. The turbine drives a generator, producing electricity. The two axis heliostats move automatically as a function of the solar calendar. This power plant alone will prevent the emission of 18,000 tons of CO2 per year.

The investment required to build the concentrating solar power plant amounted to €35 million (US$47 million), with a contribution of €5 million (US$6.7 million) from the EU's Fifth Framework Program for research, awarded for the project's innovative approach.

The 300 MW Sanlucar la Mayor Solar Platform will be completed by the year 2013 and, utilizing a wide range of solar technologies will produce sufficient energy to cover the consumption of some 180,000 homes, equivalent to the needs of the city of Seville. The project requires a 1.2 billion euro (US$1.6 billion) investment.

The remaining Sanlucar la Mayor Solar Platform power plants will be stagger-constructed over the next six years to convert the Platform into a diverse technology macro-project that will include solar tower, parabolic-trough collector, Stirling dish, and low and high concentration photovoltaic plants.

The PS20, a solar tower 20 megawatt plant, similar to the PS10 plant and a parabolic-trough collector demonstration plant are currently under construction

Comments

[Saul]

"The investment required to build the concentrating solar power plant amounted to €35 million (US$47 million)"

"The project requires a 1.2 billion euro (US$1.6 billion) investment."

It looks like building the thing is pretty cheap compared to the whole project. Is much of that cost a result of expenses which could be reduced with repetition?

[TheSunsHarvest.com]

I would like to see more projects like this in the United States

[Luigi Aronson]

47 million for 180K homes sounds like a good deal. It doesn't seem like it takes up much land.

[George]

24.3 Gigawatts per hour, per year? Interesting units. What's it running, a flux capacitor?

[kent beuchert]

As usual in the alternative energy field, there is plenty of cheerleadiing and a dearth of factual information in this article. When wind people talk about 300 MW they REALLY mean around 75 MW of totally unreliable power. I wonder what the Solar Tower folks mean when the say 300 MW? Who knows.
You would think it would be important to describe this solar tower's reliability characteristics (!!), as compared to the Enviromission solar tower (which is in the preconstruction phase in Texas and Arizona), which can operate 24/7 as long as there aren't several cloudy days in a row. I would like to see some hard data comparisons between the two technologies in terms of cost, maintenance, etc. I know the Enviromission tower is very simple and with few moving parts, unlike this type of solar tower. From all that I know now, the Enviromission type solar tower is miles ahead of this solar technology. I doubt that anyone would invest in this type as opposed to the Enviromission design, which I consider has 1000 times the value of crappy wind power (which is quickly becoming the nation's bottomless pit of misspent alternative energy dollars).
Doing some quick calculations, I see that it would require about 810 1.5 MW wind turbines to average 300 MW of power. Assuming a low cost of $2 million apiece, that's 1.6 billion for wind alternatives. EXCEPT that wind seldom blows during peak demand (in Texas during 2006, wind produced an insignificant 2.5% capacity during peak demand periods), whereas solar output nicely mirrors daily heat and peak demand.
Looked at this way, it would require somewhere around 8000 wind turbines to meet peak demand (over $16 billion!!). And what are the maintenence cost and land rental costs and hookup costs for 8000 turbines,
assuming the unlikely event that you can find places to site them within 100 miles of the city?

[Udo Stenzel]

Hrm, 25% capacity factor (ignoring the problem of energy storage) and just 400 of these huge installations could replace the coal power station next door. I'm impressed. Sort of.

[Robert Tampa]

great! why indonesia don't follow this inovation..

[jadhav s.b.]

To,
The Energy Blog

Reference :- As per web site.

Subject :- Enquiry regarding Modern Solar Tower Plant & Fund
arrangement for the same.

Dear Sir,

We have seen details of various solar tower plants on which were established by your company on E – Mail. We are thinking to established Solar Tower Plant of Capacity 11 KW. At. Latur District or in Osmanabad in Maharashtra State ( India ) . The details of the surrounding site are as given below.

Our Requirenment :-

i. Capacity of the Project :- 11 K.W.

ii. Tempreture At. Site :- 30 to 42 degree celcious 325
days in a year.Avg.- 30 above.

iii. Rainfall :- Menimun rainfall in the year.

iv. Sale of Power :- a) Capitive consumsuption
b) Third Party Sale
c) Power purchase agreement
execute for the period of
13 year.By Government in india

In view of above information you are requested to please furnished the Physibility , Project Report & other required data available with you of the above project ( With Cost and generating electricity capacity ). The required Finance for the above project if you are provided as well as we are interested in deal in India Jointely. So we will accept it & your terms & Conditions regarding of the finance please inform to us.

We are already established Windmill Project in Maharashtra (India ) & Karnataka State ( India ) details given in our Brief Note. The total amount invested in the Windmill Project around to Rs. 150 Crores out of which Rs. 100 Crores finance by our Bankers. We are interesting for taking the finance from your Company if your rate of interest is less than from our Bankers. The issue will be discuss in length during the actual meeting.

An early reply in the matter is highly appreciated .

Thanking you.

Yours faithfully
For Shraddha Constructions &
Power Generation Pvt.Ltd.

Shivaji B. Jadhav
(C.M.D.)

Our ID
Jadhav_shraddha@yahoo.co.in
Shraddhagroup_pune@yahoo.co.in
Shraddha_constructionspg@yahoo.co.in

[chandrakanth]

we would like to set up a solar tower plant in india,the state of andhra pradesh. kindly furnish the details and techno feasibility report. we welcome you to make the project jointly.

[cool dog]

wow gold
wow gold
wow gold
cheap wow gold
world of warcraft gold
Buy WoW gold
World of Warcraft Gold
Buy World of Warcraft gold
Cheap World of Warcraft Gold
buy Cheap World of Warcraft Gold
wow gold
wow gold
wow gold
cheap wow gold
world of warcraft gold
Buy WoW gold
World of Warcraft Gold
Buy World of Warcraft gold
Cheap World of Warcraft Gold
buy Cheap World of Warcraft Gold

[Amsterdamned]

It looks like they've excavated the heliostat field. That would add quite a bit to the cost and construction time. Another problem is the relatively poor land efficiency, because even though the operating temperatures are higher, allowing more generator efficiency, the heliostats have rather low ground coverage. Because if you pack them too dense, they will obstruct each other. And high temperature turbines and other equipment or materials are usually more expensive. The molten salts approach seems very promising though.

Ausra's new design appears superiour to this in most if not all aspects.

[runescape money]

runescape gold
runescape money
runescape gold
wow power leveling

[Atila - Solar Power Expert]

Saul:

"I would like to see more projects like this in the United States"

I would like to see more projects like this all around the world ;)

[Cindy]

I am interested in going to spain to study water conservation and energy sources. I am studying in the US now. How and where do I get more information regarding employment in these fields.