400 MW Solar Tower System for California

The California Energy Commission has accepted an application from Oakland solar startup BrightSource Energy Inc. to develop the 400-megawatt Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS), a solar thermal power plant -- the first large solar thermal facility proposed for California in 16 years.  The ISEGS is a project to develop three solar thermal power plants and shared facilities near Ivanpah Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert close to the California-Nevada border. 

The plants will utilize Distributed Power Tower™ (DPT) (sometimes called solar towers, earlier post) solar field technology developed by Jerusalem, Israel based Luz II, a wholly owned subsidiary of BrightSource Energy.

The ISEGS includes three solar concentrating thermal power plants, based on distributed power tower and heliostat mirror technology. DPT technology consists of a number of solar power clusters (SPC's), each including a power tower surrounded on 360º by an array of heliostats. DPT heliostats are organized into a solar field, which consists of thousands of heliostats sharing a common power tower. Heliostats are flat glass mirrors which track the sun and reflect sunlight onto a receiver. The receiver is located on the top of the power tower. Power towers are linked together by pipelines to a central location where electricity is generated and sent to a power grid. The total area required for all three phases would be 3,400-acres (or 5.3 square miles). Each SPC produces 20 MW using Bright Source Energy’s current DPT 550 technology.

The DPT 550 technology heats water to superheated steam at pressures up to 160 bar and temperatures up to 565º C. A high efficiency steam turbine converts the superheated steam to electricity, which is sent to a power grid. The DPT 550 Technology is more than 40% efficient in thermal to electric conversion. Both 100 MW and 200 MW power plants are currently being designed.

The heliostats are flat mirrors of standard glass with 7.3 m² of surface area. They reflect sunlight onto a receiver located on top of a power tower. Each heliostat is a sophisticated assembly, but all of its components are standard products readily available. Consequently, the LUZ II mirrors cost much less to manufacture than the parabolic mirrors used by most CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) thermal technologies.

Each heliostat can rotate in two axes (elevation and azimuth), enabling it to accurately track the sun and maintain the reflecting focus on the receiver. The aiming points are calculated by a computer program and updated every 15 minutes.

The receiver is located on the top of the power tower. The receiver is a radiant forced circulation, drum type, steam boiler. The boiler's source of radiation is the sun reflected onto the receiver by fields of heliostats. The boiler can superheat steam at a pressure of 140 -160 bar and a temperature of 550 - 565º Celsius.

Solar thermal power conversion to electricity is performed in a conventional Rankine cycle steam turbo-generator. The steam turbine consists of a 145 bar, 540º Celsius steam inlet, a mid pressure reheat, five to six extractions and an air cooled condenser.

Each plant would use an air-cooled condenser or “dry cooling,” to minimize water usage in the site’s desert environment. Water consumption would therefore, be mainly to provide water for washing heliostats. No wastewater would be generated by the system, except for a small stream that would be treated and used for landscape irrigation.

If approved, in a yearlong licensing process by the Commission, construction of the project is expected to begin in early 2009, and targeted for completion in late 2012. The three plants will be built in phases. Construction of the first, a 100-megawatt plant, will begin in the first quarter of 2009, with commercial operations starting in the fourth quarter of 2010.  A second 100-megawatt plant will break ground in 2010 and is expected to begin commercial operations in 2011 with construction of the third, 200-megawatt plant begining in 2011 with commercial operation expected by the end of 2012.

The company expects to announce a long-term power purchase agreement. BrightSource is reportedly negotiating a long-term agreement with Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

LUZ II’s claims that its proprietary, hybrid, solar-gas powered generating technology, Distributed Power Towers, will provide the lowest cost from ever achieved in a solar power plant. Their  Generation One technology, DPT 550, produces reliable, peak power electricity by using solar energy to create superheated steam.

Comments

[Kit P]

It will be interesting to see if the California Energy Commission can process a an application for a large solar thermal plant in California faster than the NRC can process an application for a nuke plant in Texas. Bet on Texas, if building renewable energy and natural gas projects is any indication.

[GreenPlease]

Ideally, such towers would have a standardized design and the permitting process would be sufficiently swift such that small investors with ~$100mil could set up and operate 100mw plants.

If the barrier of entry was at that level, capital would flood in, I guarantee it.

[Kit P]

GreenPlease good thought but I have to ask what planet are you from? The irony here is that the environmental portion of a 100mw thermal solar plants will take just as long as the environmental portion of a nuke plant. Wait for the save the giant tortoise society to intervene.

I do not know the actual fraction but a significant amount of renewable energy contracts approved by CEC are for projects in other states.

[Richard]

Hi everyone, I’m curious to know how I can get into the solar energy distribution business. I am an entrepreneur and have been watching this industry blossom, now I want to begin researching costs, fees, grants, regulations, and contracts (with local or state energy groups) to see if I could possibly get some investors involved in building a station.

If anyone can help me, mentor me, or just point me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate it, I’m not some big shot business man, I’m just a guy with lots of creative ideas and the will to succeed.

Richard

[email protected]

[Kit P]

First you need a complete lack of ethics. You must be willing to take money from people by promising something you can not deliver.

A 400 MW Solar Tower System for California might cost a billion dollars and take 10 years to build. The steam plan will have about the same environmental impact of a 400 MW nuke plant for AGW.

[Richard]

Kit P, Thank you very much for your response. What about something on a smaller scale something that could help smaller cities, suburban cites instead of big metropolitans, you know start small end big. As an example the city I live in is Simi Valley that has a population of 111,351 (from the 2000 Census report) and lots of unused land. For a city like this what would I be looking at as far as plant sizes and annual watt distribution?

Again thank you very much for taking time to answer my questions I appreciate your advice and input. I hope you can continue to help out in this process.

Richard

[Arif Izmirlioglu]

Dear Sir Will you give me more details abaut your solar generator systems
sincerely
Arif

[sandrasores]

what we’ve got to do is use energy as an opportunity to actually jump-start economic recovery. We need to quickly move toward energy efficiency. We should require the utilities to begin to work for energy efficiency and conservation, costs that will be shared and decrease the pressure on families. We need a weatherization and low- income heating emergency program that is out there now helping families in New Hampshire and elsewhere to cover their costs. And we need to look at how doing what is right about energy is not only good for our security and good for the fight against global warming, but it will be essential in dealing with the economic challenges that we face.
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sandra
California Alcohol Addiction Treatment

[brittany morrison]

hey yall i just wanted to say i hate the fact that we are in global warming so i think this is a solution

[Richard]

I think big things start one step at a time. This is good news though. Kudos!!

[F. Eggers]

What provision does the system have for generating power when the sun is not shining?

[MR SOUMIK]

DID YOU HAVE A CIVIL ENGINEER NAMED MR CARLOS DURING THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE PROJECT?

[Display Energy Certificates]

Solar towers are used to raise the observation equipment above the atmospheric disturbances caused by solar heating of the ground and the radiation of the heat into the atmosphere.

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[vpn]

Great news for California and a huge step towards development. Hope it continues the same.

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