The Energy Blog

eSolar Receives Funding for 33MW Modular Solar Power Plants

From a 4/21 press release:

eSolar™, a producer of modular solar thermal power plants, announced (pdf) that is has closed $130 million in funding from Idealab, Google.org, Oak Investment Partners, and other investors for the construction and deployment of pre-fabricated power plants. Their distributed solar thermal plants achieve economies of scale at 33 MW, and are modularly scaled to fit the needs of large and small utilities.

"The eSolar™ power plant is based on mass manufactured components, and designed for rapid construction, uniform modularity, and unlimited scalability. Rather than over-engineering the solution, eSolar’s smart scalable solar architecture targets what we see as the four key business obstacles facing the sector: price, scalability, rapid deployment, and grid impact."

-- Asif Ansari, CEO of eSolar.

. . . Centering on eSolar’s 33 MW pre-fab form-factor, the company’s modular design translates to minimal land requirements. The company’s solar power plant solutions are tailored to fit local resources and produce a low environmental footprint, favoring a straightforward siting and permitting process.

. . . eSolar has secured land rights in the southwest United States to support the production and transmission of over 1 GW of power. eSolar will have a fully operational power plant later this year in southern California.

From their website:

The economic tipping point, for solar power, occurs when the capital cost of the solar field is less than the capital costs and fuel costs of the traditional system. To address this issue, eSolar has developed a modular power plant architecture designed to take advantage of mass manufactured components at every level.

Sodium Sulfur Batteries to be Used for Energy Storage at MN Windfarm

Xcel Energy, (NYSE: XEL)in partnership with the University of Minnesota, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Great Plains Institute, will soon begin testing a one-megawatt sodium-sulfur battery storage system to demonstrate its ability to store wind energy and dispatch it to the electricity grid when needed.

Fully charged, the batteries could power 500 homes for six and one-half hours. Xcel Energy will purchase the batteries from NGK Insulators, Ltd. that will be an integral part of the project. The sodium-sulfur battery is commercially available and versions of this technology are already being used in Japan and in a few US applications, but this is the first U.S. application of the battery as a direct wind energy storage device.

The 50-kilowatt battery modules, 20 in total, will be roughly the size of two semi trailers and weigh approximately 60 tons. They will be able to store about 6.5 megawatt-hours of electricity, with a charge/discharge capacity of one megawatt. When the wind blows, the batteries are charged. When the wind calms down, the batteries can be used to supply energy to the grid as needed.

"Energy storage is key to expanding the use of renewable energy. This technology has the potential to reduce the impact caused by the variability and limited predictability of wind energy generation."

-- Dick Kelly, Xcel Energy chairman, president and CEO.

The project will take place in Luverne, Minn., with the battery installation beginning this spring adjacent to a nearby 11-megawatt wind farm owned by Minwind Energy, LLC. Testing will begin in October and is expected to last up to two years.

Commercial projects are now underway that use flow batteries, compressed air energy storage, thermal energy storage, pumped hydro, and sodium sulfur batteries for energy storage in connection with renewable energy projects.  American Electric Power (AEP) is also using NaS batteries in a couple of their systems, but not in connection with wind power. While not enough experience has been gained with any of these technologies to make any decision as to which technology is best under what conditions, pumped hydro and sodium sulfur batteries are the most well proven and thus seem to be the first choice of electric utilities. Thermal storage is gaining acceptance for use with thermal solar systems, the only energy technology that it is suitable for use with. As Mr. Kelly stated, energy storage is essential to widespread use of renewable energy technologies. 

Sandia, Stirling Energy Systems Set New World Record of 31.25% for Solar-to-Grid Conversion Efficiency

On a perfect New Mexico winter day — with the sky almost 10 percent brighter than usual — Sandia National Laboratories and Stirling Energy Systems (SES) set a new solar-to-grid system conversion efficiency record by achieving a 31.25 percent net efficiency rate. The old 1984 record of 29.4 percent was toppled on SES’s “Serial #3” solar dish Stirling system at Sandia’s National Solar Thermal Test Facility.

The conversion efficiency is calculated by measuring the net energy delivered to the grid and dividing it by the solar energy hitting the dish mirrors. Auxiliary loads, such as water pumps, computers and tracking motors, are accounted for in the net power measurement.

Each dish unit consists of 82 mirrors formed in a dish shape to focus the light to an intense beam onto a receiver, which transmits the heat energy to a Stirling engine. The engine is a sealed system filled with hydrogen. As the gas heats and cools, its pressure rises and falls. The change in pressure drives the pistons inside the engine, producing mechanical power, which in turn drives a generator and makes electricity.

SolarReserve Formed to Commercialize Solar Power Tower Technology Using Molten Salt Storage

A new company has entered the thermal solar field.  Per their press release:

Hamilton Sundstrand, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. [NYSE: UTX], and US Renewables Group have formed a new entity, SolarReserve, to commercialize the concentrated solar power tower technology and corresponding molten salt storage system developed by Rocketdyne. This renewable technology will enable utility-scale solar power generation. It is designed to meet a utility's needs with a single installation capable of producing up to 500 MW of peak power.

"Due to the unique ability of the product to store the energy it captures, this system will function like a conventional hydroelectric power plant, but with several advantages. We will have the capability to store the sun's energy and release it on demand. This product is more predictable than water reserves, the supply is free and inexhaustible, and the environmental impact is essentially zero."

Lee Bailey, managing director of US Renewables Group (USRG)

The technology was originally demonstrated in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Energy at the Solar Two facility in Barstow, Calif. The unique component of the HS Rocketdyne power tower is the central receiver. This high heat flux hardware represents a unique combination of liquid rocket engine heat transfer technology and molten salt handling expertise.

From the WSJ (link only good for 7 days):

Hamilton Sundstrand's Rocketdyne segment will provide heat-resistant pumps and other equipment, as well as the expertise in handling and storing salt that has been heated to more than 1,050 degrees Fahrenheit. . . .

According to the company, molten salt loses only about 1% of its heat during a day, making it possible to store energy for long periods of time. The salt is a mixture of sodium and potassium nitrate.

From CNET:

The technology is expected to be available within three or four years. A representative said the company expects to realize revenue of more than $1 billion in the next 10 years.

Ausra Building First U.S. Production Facility for Thermal Solar

Ausra Inc., a developer of utility-scale solar thermal power, announced Friday it is building the first U.S. manufacturing plant for solar thermal power systems, in Las Vegas. The 130,000-square-foot, highly automated manufacturing and distribution center will produce the reflectors, towers, absorber tubes, and other key components of the company’s solar thermal power plants.

“Ausra can fill four square miles with solar collectors every year from this one factory, enough to provide market-priced zero-pollution power to 500,000 homes,"

Bob Fishman, president and CEO of Ausra.

In November 2007, Ausra and California utility PG&E announced a power purchase agreement for a one-square-mile, 177-megawatt power plant, enough to power over 120,000 homes, to be built in central California

The production plant will begin regular operation in April 2008. Ausra’s new Las Vegas facility will manufacture the solar field equipment for the PG&E project and for other power projects throughout the American Southwest. The factory, the first of its kind in the U.S., will be capable of making over 700 megawatts (electric) of solar collectors per year.

Google's Goal: Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced a new strategic initiative to develop electricity from renewable energy sources that will be cheaper than electricity produced from coal. The newly created initiative, known as RE<C, will focus initially on advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, enhanced geothermal systems and other potential breakthrough technologies.

In 2008, Google expects to spend tens of millions on research and development and related investments in renewable energy. As part of its capital planning process, the company also anticipates investing hundreds of millions of dollars in breakthrough renewable energy projects which generate positive returns.

"There has been tremendous work already on renewable energy. Technologies have been developed that can mature into industries capable of providing electricity cheaper than coal. Solar thermal technology, for example, provides a very plausible path to providing renewable energy cheaper than coal. We are also very interested in further developing other technologies that have potential to be cost-competitive and green. We are aware of several promising technologies, and believe there are many more out there."

"With talented technologists, great partners and significant investments, we hope to rapidly push forward. Our goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal.  We are optimistic this can be done in years, not decades."

-- Larry Page, Google Co-founder and President of Products

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.

FPL, PG&E and Ausra Commit to Develop 1,500 MW of Solar Power

Thursday, in association with leading utilities FPL Group, Inc.(NYSE: FPL) and PG&E Corp. (NYSE: PCG), Ausra, Inc., a solar thermal power technology company, presented a formal commitment at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting for a clean energy future through the development of 1,500 megawatts of solar thermal power plants which they claim will produce electricity at a price comparable with conventional fossil-fuel power plants.

As part of this announcement, PG&E Corp. committed to purchasing an additional 1,000 megawatts of solar thermal power over the next five years. Separately, FPL Group committed to develop 500 megawatts of solar thermal power plants. Collectively these commitments will generate about as much electric power as all the photovoltaic solar panels installed worldwide in 2006.

Solar thermal power plants generate electricity by driving steam turbines with sunshine. Solar concentrators boil water with focused sunlight, generating high-pressure steam which drives conventional turbine generators. Energy storage systems can store heat from the sun to allow solar electric power to be generated on demand, day and night.

One of the major differences between Ausra's system and other solar thermal power plants is that they use low cost flat mirrors rather than solar troughs. A previous post on Ausra gives further details about how their system differs from others resulting in a lower cost of electricity.

"FPL Group has evaluated Ausra’s new solar thermal technology, and we view this breakthrough technology as a promising option to make solar energy an economically sound addition to our power generation going forward.” said Lewis Hay, chairman and CEO of FPL Group, parent company of Florida Power & Light.

FPL Group is the nation’s leader in wind and solar energy today. 

PG&E Signs Agreement With Solel for 553 Megawatts of Solar Power

This thermal solar project when completed in 2011 it will be the largest solar project in the world, generating 553 megawatts of power for Pacific Gas & Electric in the Mojave Desert in California. The plant is being built by Israeli company, Solel Solar Systems of Beit Shemes, Israel, a successor company to the people that built the nine thermal solar plants in the Mojave Desert, that have operated over the past 20 years and are currently generating 354 MW of electricity. 

Thermal solar is currently the lowest cost technology for producing solar power and it is good to see a large project like this get the go ahead.

According to their website Solel is building an $800 million 150 MW project in Spain and has recently upgraded a 100 MW project in California for FPL Energy. They have been active in supplying smaller solar power plants and components for them, but this is the first megaproject that they have landed.

Their current technology is more than 20% more efficient than the original design due to improvements in the design of the solar trough and the receiver tube.

Neither Solel or P G & E have revealed any costs for the project but an AP article on PR Inside estimated that The Mojave Solar Park to cost $2 billion. A NYT article said that people close to both companies put the cost of electricity from the plant at slightly more than 10 cents a kilowatt-hour (The Solel website says "the cost of solar thermal produced energy can be close to 12 cents (US) per k/Wh. However, many economists and investors predict that this price will continuously drop over the next ten years with increased installed capacity, to 6 cents per kW/h, as a result of technological improvements, economies of scale and volume production.")

A few paragraphs from the P G & E press release further describe the project:

DOE Finally Begins Support of CSP

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Program has released a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for companies to develop storage solutions, manufacturing approaches, and new system concepts for large-scale concentrating solar power (CSP) plants. The collaborative public-private partnerships aims to reduce the nominal levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of CSP power plants from 13-17 ¢/kWh in 2007 to a target of 7-10¢/kWh by 2015 and 5-7¢/kWh by 2020. DOE estimates that satisfaction of these cost targets could lead to installation of 16,000 to 35,000 MW of new generating capacity by 2030. This would result in a savings of 36-80 million tons of CO2 emitted to the atmosphere each year relative to coal plants of similar capacity.

The FOA anticipates three phases of effort: concept feasibility, prototype development, and field validation with a “go/no-go” decision at the end of each phase. DOE is providing $5M toward the FOA in FY07 with an additional $5M planned for FY08. These funds will be sufficient to cover all of Phase 1, and will allow several successful projects to begin Phase 2 activities.

DOE has found that Nevada, New Mexico, California, Arizona, Utah and Texas have enough combined potential project sites to provide up to 6800 MW of generating capacity – roughly equivalent to seven times the country’s current electricity generating capacity. CSP technology is the least expensive solar technology for providing large quantities of electrical power, and with sufficient storage, it can deliver baseload power.

Parabolic Trough Technology

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has created a new website, "TroughNet." Currently parabolic trough solar technology offers the lowest cost solar electric option for large power plant applications.  TroughNet is a technical resource that offers:

• information about the various components of a solar trough,
• the power cycles that can be used with solar troughs,
• the status of thermal energy storage that could be applied to solar trough power plants,
• research and development being conducted and
• a market and economic assessment.

I hope that you find this site useful in pursuing your interests in renewable energy.

SolarMission Solar Tower Video

SolarMission Technologies (OTC: EVOMY.PK,  ASX: EVM.AX) and its Australian subsidiary, EnviroMission Limited produced this 5 minute video about its early pilot plant in Spain. It is an older video (2000) but gives a basic understanding of the solar tower concept. The designs have changed and technologies added, but it gives an introduction to the solar tower concept.

The power plant consists of a very large glazed solar collector with a chimney in the center through which the hot air generated in the collector rises.  The hot air wind drives turbo-generators located at the base of the chimney.  The floor of the collector absorbs heat during the daytime and release the heat during the night, so that the power is produced on a continuous basis.  Cold air enters the collector, with an upward sloping ceiling, from its outer perimeter, is heated and rises through the tower at 50 feet per second (15 meters per second)

Several other videos about Solar Missions Technologies are available at the same site. Their system is described in greater detail in this earlier posts here and here.

Nevada Solar One Pictures

An aerial view of Nevada Solar One. The site takes up about 300 acres and contains 760 mirror arrays measuring about 100 meters each. Roughly 184,000 mirrors are installed at Solar One, a [64-megawatt] solar thermal plant that will go live next month in Boulder City, Nev. The mirrors direct sunlight on an oil-filled tube. The oil is then used to create steam, which turns a turbine.

Added 1:39 am, see previous post for details about the project.

First Commercial Solar Tower to Start in Spain

First Plant in Spanish Solar Park Nears Start
Reuters via Eco-Business Channel, February 27, 2006

An 11 MW solar tower in southern Spain is finished and could start producing electricity in April, its owner Abengoa said on Tuesday. ...

Construction of a second 20 MW tower started last year. Both use mirrors to concentrate the sun's rays onto the top of a 100 meter (300 foot) tower where they produce steam to drive a turbine.

Santiago Seage, managing director of Abengoa's solar division, said it was the first commercial plant in the world to use this technology.

.

Catching Up

Here are some of the items I have missed the last couple of weeks that are of some significance.

Abengoa S.A. the $3 billion Spanish based energy company, best known to The Energy Blog readers for its efforts in ethanol and cellulosic ethanol  has formed Solucar Power, Inc., a new U.S. subsidiary that will handle market development in solar energy using concentrating solar power (CSP) (Their techology is usually referred to as themal solar which concentrates solar energy onto a fluid. CSP is usually defined as a technology that concentrates solar energy onto a PV cell ) technologies.  Abengoa will initially focus on parabolic trough technology. Solucar Power has purchased Industrial Solar Technology (IST) Corporation's assets and technology in solar troughs. IST, based in Denver, Colorado, has 20 years' experience in CSP with IST systems delivering hot water, air conditioning, district heat, steam and potable water from a desalination unit, but not electricity generation. Abengoa recently completed an 11 MW central receiver plant in Spain and has started construction of a 20 MW plant.

According to this press release, Katabatic Power Corp., a privately held wind energy developer, announced a joint venture with Deutsche Bank AG to develop a 3,000 MW wind farm, the world's largest, located in Northwest British Columbia (BC). Under the terms of the joint venture, Katabatic will develop the first 700 MW of the full 3,000 MW Banks Island wind resource over the next two years, with construction to commence in early 2009.

Solel to Build 150 MW of Thermal Solar in Spain

Solel Solar Systems, Ltd., a world leader in solar thermal technology for solar systems and central power plants for clean electricity, announced that an agreement has been signed with Sacyr-Vallehermoso, a large Spanish infrastructure concern, to build three solar power plants in Spain with a total capacity of 150MW and at an estimated overall value of US$890 million. Within the frame agreement, Solel's scope of supply for all three projects is estimated at around US$500 million.

For Solel, based in Israel, this marks the first turnkey power project to be delivered in Spain on a Build, Own and Operate (BOO) basis. The project also enables Solel to act as provider of solar energy in Europe for the first time.

The current price per kilowatt/hour for produced solar thermal electricity in Spanish electricity projects stands at 30 cents. The rate is subsidized by the Spanish Government for a period of 25 years in order to support & encourage the innovation and implementation of alternative domestic energy sources, environmentally friendly clean electricity and to support local electricity production.

Solar Tower Update

CNN has a good story updating the status of the Australian 50 MW solar tower (I prefer the name 'Solar Chimney') planned by EnviroMission (OTC: EVOMY.PK,  ASX: EVM.AX). Quite a few changes have been made since my original post, the biggest being that the tower was downsized from 200 MW to 50 MW. In addition incorporation of two enhancing technologies has allowed smaller units to become economically viable and eligible for government funding.

The re-engineered tower will be a 260 foot-diameter, 1,600-foot tall structure, taller than the Sears Tower, surrounded by a two-mile-diameter glazed solar collector at ground level. About 8 feet tall at the perimeter, the solar collector will gradually slope up to a height of 50 to 60 feet at the tower's base. Acting as a giant greenhouse, the solar collector will heat the air to about 68 ^oF (38^oC) hotter than the outside air entering at the periphery, using the radiation from the sun. Acting like a chimney, the air is sucked into the tower,  where it passes through a multitude of wind turbine generators clustered around the structure. The tower will cost an estimated $250 million to build, with construction expected to start in 2007 pending receiving a $75 million grant from the Australian government.

APS Completes First Solar Trough Power Plant in Arizona; and the First Built in the U.S. in 17 Years

Arizona Public Service (APS) press release April 20, 2006 ... Arizona's first solar trough power plant features more than 100,000 square feet of parabolic-trough shaped mirrors and stands more than 15 feet tall. Neatly aligned in 6 rows - each more than 1,200 feet long that sit on a stretch of desert between Phoenix and Tucson - the mirrors already are quietly concentrating the sun's energy and producing one megawatt of clean electrical power. ...

The plant uses a solar thermal generator and mirrors to concentrate the sun's energy to heat oil. The heat from the oil is then used to drive a turbine/generator that produces electricity. ...

Thermal Solar Power Booming in Spain

The Spanish thermal solar power race is on. In Spain, a company called Solucar has a 11 MW solar tower power project under construction, two more 20 MW towers being financed and permitted and 300 MW of parabolic trough plants under development.  ACS Cobra has three 50 MW of parabolic trough plants due to start construction soon. In addition Spain's largest utility, Iberdrola, has announced that it has ten parabolic trough trough projects totaling 500 MW underdevelopment. An array of smaller projects brings Spain's total pipeline of solar projects to near 1,000 MW. 

All this activity results from a 2004 ministerial ruling, Royal Decree 436, which "establishes two alternative payment schemes, both guaranteed over the 25 year life-cycle of thermal solar plants, and diminishing thereafter. The first is a fixed, guaranteed payment of 300% of the Average Reference Tariff (ART) for electricity. The second induces operators to compete on the national wholesale electricity market. Here, CSP generation receives 250% of the ART plus a 10% additional incentive."  This is further explained in the referenced article.

The solar tower technology involves a high central tower, around which a series of reflectors, or heliostats, are situated in concentric arcs at ground level. The heliostats track the sun's position and concentrate radiation on a thermal receiver, mounted at the top of the tower. The heat, at a temperature in excess of 1100 ºF (600ºC), is used to generate the steam that drives the turbine.

Sterling Energy Systems Featured in Design News

High Efficiency Stirling Engine Key to Energy Conversion, a feature article about Sterling Energy System's solar dish system, appeared in the January 9 issue of Design News .  Quite an interesting article for those of you that are interested in the details of how the system is made.

Their dish/engine concentrating solar power system uses a mirror in the shape of a dish to collect and concentrate the sun's heat onto a small area where a receiver is located.  The receiver transfers the sun's energy to a Stirling cycle engine, that converts the energy into power.  Dish/engine concentrating systems were the subject of this earlier post.

The article goes into quite a bit of detail about the mechanical design of the system, which I have not seen anywhere else.  It explains the Stirling cycle, the Stirling engine that they are using and gives quite a bit of detail about the mechanism that is used in the tracking system they use to position the dish so that it follows the position of the sun.

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IAUS Inks Deal for Low Cost Thermal Collector Solar Plant

International Automated Systems, Inc. [OTCBB : IAUS] has signed a $150,000,000.00 Purchase and Installation Contract to install a turnkey 100 megawatt power plant for Solar Renewable Energy-1 LLC of Nevada.

The Nevada installation will showcase IAUS™'s solar collector lenses which generate steam to its patented turbines for solar thermal generated power.  Low-cost energy produced by IAUS™'s new solar technology can be used to generate electricity or produce clean fuels such as hydrogen and green methanol (gasoline replacements) at a competitive price. IAUS™'s unique thin-film solar panels can be produced at a fraction of the cost of today's photovoltaic solar panels.

Sounds like a big break for IAUS whose technology has not been around for a long time. See earlier post for descriion of their collector design and web site for very brief description of turbine. $1,500/kW seems like a record low price for solar energy.

International Automated Systems, Salem, UT

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Solargenix Neveda One Project to Break Ground

The largest solar power plant built anywhere in the world in the last 15 years is set to get under way next month in Boulder City, Nevada.  Solargenix Energy said this week that it will break ground in January on its 64-megawatt solar power plant, dubbed Nevada Solar One.  Construction is expected to take 12 to 14 months, with the plant scheduled to begin delivering electricity to the grid in June 2007. The plant will use parabolic trough technology, a system in which parabolically shaped mirrors are used to focus the suns rays on a tube containing heat transfer fluid which in turn provides the heat to generate the steam used to power the turbines which drive electric generators. Similar technology was used for nine power plants built in California between 1984 and 1990, which are still operating.  Solargenix has been placing orders for equipment for some time as typified by an order to Shott reported in a previous post.

Resource: Bright future expected for solar project, Kevin Rademacher, Los Vegas Sun December 19, 2005

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Hidden Thermal Solar Collectors for your House

Dawn Solar Systems Inc. produces renewable energy systems that integrate seamlessly with a building’s architecture, providing energy security and reducing operating costs by replacing fossil fuels and electricity with solar energy.  Residential and commercial systems are available today that can provide electricity along with hot air and water for heating and cooling, all harvested from a shared roof or wall surface.

That is the pitch that Dawn uses to describe their solar collectors hidden under the roof and/or walls of your house.  The system is installed during initial construction or a roof replacement.  Depending upon location and application design, an open or closed loop system can be created as fluids are pumped through the system and cycled through conventional heat transfer and distribution systems.  The following applications can be used with the heat collected in the system.

• Domestic hot water heaters
• Institutional, commercial and industrial process water systems
• Radiant floor heating systems
• Swimming pool heater
• Warm air heating systems
• Remote site or isolated cabin applications
• Integrations with photovoltaic systems
• Attic space cooling
• De-icing

Solar Hydrogen from Landfill Gas

SHEC LABS - Solar Hydrogen Energy Corporation, with its partners will deploy the world’s first Solar Hydrogen production station, “SHEC Station #1”, using methane collected from the City of Regina's (Canada) landfill.

The unit produces hydrogen with solar energy as the primary energy input. A solar concentrator, pictured, similar to that used in thermal solar dish electrical generators is used.  The Stirling engine in the electrical generators is replaced by a reaction chamber that receives the solar energy through an iris that can be controlled to regulate the amount of heat being fed to the reactor.  SHEC has developed a solar concentrator that is simple to make using relatively common materials. They developed a process to get the curvatures required to a high degree of accuracy with a manufacturing process that is very inexpensive. 

Water Heating Energy Excessive

The United States should reduce the energy it uses to heat water by 25% by 2020, mainly through the use of solar and advanced water heaters.  That is the conclusion of a report, 'A Technology Roadmap' developed by the industry and funded by the Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Program.

The country consumes 100 billion kWh of electricity each year to heat water in homes and apartments, 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, 900 million gallons of oi and 500 million gallons of LPG.  “This energy comes at a significant cost,” the report notes. The average home spends US$207 per year to heat water, the third-largest household energy expense behind space heating and space cooling. Electric and gas water heaters dominate the residential market, accounting for 99% of units sold and 93% of the energy consumed by water heaters.

Stirling Engine Powers Drone

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has received a patent for a drone powered by a Stirling engine.  The Stirling engine, operating at about 800 C, uses temperature difference to activate its gas-filed pistons.  A parabolic mirror, which tracks the sun, would be used to heat a thermal battery consisting of lithium and lithium hydride.  Heat stored in the battery would then be used to heat the Stirling engines gas, while the cold air outside the plane would provide the cooling for the engine.

Obtaining the correct mixture of lithium hydride and lithium and the materials of construction used in the container for the battery are critical to successful operation of the battery.  According to the patent, lithium hydride has a higher density of energy storage of any known material, but is normally explosive above 700C. By adding a small amount of pure lithium the mixture becomes stable. Containment of the mixture is difficult due to the reactive nature of the lithium, but certain alloys that are described in the patent can be used.  The container must be designed for a very low permeation rate of hydrogen to prevent an excessive pressure from being built up in the container.  A gold coating applied to the inside walls of the container can be used to obtain the desired permeation rate.

This is just a patent now, but LLNL has many secret projects, this could be one of them.  The construction of the battery is extremely sophisticated, my description is much simplified. 

Resources:

Invention: Hot-air plane, New Scientist.com, November 29, 2005
Patent: Solar thermal aircraft, Charles L. Bennett, patent number 20050242232, November 3, 2005

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64 MW Solar Thermal Unit Moves Ahead

SHOTT North America announced on October 3 that they have received their first large volume order for solar receivers.  They will supply 19,300  receivers for the 64 MW plant to be built in partnership with Solargenix.  On September 21 Solargenix announced that it had secured power purchase agreements with utilities and approval from the Public Utility Commission of Nevada which allows them to complete development of Nevada Solar One, the largest solar power plant to be built in 14 years.  The plant is scheduled to begin delivering electricity in June 2007.

Solar thermal power plants use the thermal energy produced by the sun to generate electricity.  Also called a parabolic trough power plants, they consist of three main components: mirrors, receivers and turbine technology. Nine parabolic trough power plants are already located in the Mojave Desert in California, developed by DOE and now owned and operated by public utilities, which  produce a total of 354 megawatts of solar electricity. When these power plants were originally erected in California, SCHOTT also supplied high quality special glass tubes to cover and protect their receivers. In 2004, SCHOTT introduced a completely new receiver that offers substantially higher quality.

Resources:

Solargenix Energy, press release September 21, 2005
SHOTT North America, press release, October 3, 2005

Technorati tags: solar power, solar, renewable, renewable energy, alternative energy

Another Thermal Solar System Announced

Thermal solar systems are having a heyday with several announcements of installations in the US and in Spain.  International Automated Systems, Inc. (IAS) announced that it had secured a site for its first 1 MW concentrating solar power plant.  Once in operation, the company hopes to expand beyond several 100 Megawatts.  The company claims its breakthrough solar power technology may become the first solar to compete with gas. Low-cost energy produced by the company's new patented and patent-pending solar technology can be used to generate electricity or produce clean fuels such as hydrogen and green methanol (gasoline replacements) at a competitive price. 

The plant will be located in Southern California. IAS expects to complete construction of the solar power plant during the first quarter 2006.  According to the company website; "IAS’s unique thin-film lens focuses the sun’s energy, producing super-heated steam for power generation. IAS’s panels are inexpensive, efficient, and require virtually no maintenance. Typical solar reflector panels (e.g. solar dishes, troughs, heliostats) are expensive and require a great deal of maintenance to sustain a solar focal point. Once installed, IAS’s lenses need no further adjustment." 

According to a July 27 press release; "IAS's unique thin-film solar panels can be produced at a fraction of the cost of today's photovoltaic solar panels. IAS is on schedule to begin mass production of its solar panels by September 2005. Once in production, IAS will be able to turn out nearly 200 megawatts of solar panels yearly, nearly 10 times greater capacity than a $100 million photovoltaic fabrication plant."

Not really much technical information about their equipment.  The company, founded in 1988, has yet to report any revenue.  It sounds like they may generate steam directly, without using a heat transfer fluid as most trough collectors do.  They are developing a variety of high technology equipment including a bladeless turbine being demonstrated at various geothermal power plants.  They could be using this turbine to generate electricity.  They do not say that they have sold the equipment, so it may be possible that they plan on paying for the units by selling the electricity.  That would be a good deal if the units are as reliable and inexpensive as they claim.

International Automated Systems, Inc., Salem, UT
IAS press Release, 7/27/05
IAS Press release, 9/29/05

Technocrati tags: solar, concentrating solar, thermal solar, Energy, renewable, alternative energy

Overview of Concentrating Solar Power

Concentrating solar power (CSP) is thermal solar power that uses a means of magnifying or concentrating the effective radiation from the sun onto a receiving device that collects the power so that it can be used directly as thermal energy or used to generate electricity. It is generally economical in sizes of 10 MW and larger, from community sized systems up through major grid connected systems.  CSP is the most developed of the solar technologies and is on the verge of being competitive with conventional power plants.  CSP technologies relatively low cost and ability to deliver power during periods of peak demand mean that it has the potential to be a major contributor to our electrical power needs.

The solar resource for generating power from concentrating solar power systems is plentiful.  For instance, enough electric power for the entire country could be generated by covering about 9 percent of Nevada—a plot of land 100 miles on a side—with parabolic trough systems.  It is not too much of a stretch to foresee that future power needs for much of the southwest; Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas could be met with concentrating solar power.

Electrical Costs from CSP facilities is coming down at a reasonable price.  All of the technologies forecast that their costs could be less than $3.00 per watt by 2015.  This corresponds to a cost of $0.10-$0.15 per kWh. Some current incentives reduce the costs to the point that costs are competitive with conventional power plants.

Currently solar toughs are believed to be the lowest cost, with some large projects being initiated.  Solar dish costs have not been publicized, but must be on the same order as solar troughs or recent orders for large systems would not have been made. These orders, when completed, will enable solar dishes to overtake solar troughs as having the largest installed capacity of all grid connected solar systems.  A 10-15 MW solar tower is under development in Spain.  Twenty five MW to 200 MW solar chimney projects are under development in Australia and the US. I am not aware of any actual large orders for concentrating solar photovoltaics, plants of up to 100 kW have been built.  Amonix claims that their costs for concentrating solar photovoltaic are approaching competitive values.

Another Major Stirling Solar Dish Facility

Stirling Energy Systems (SES) announced that it has signed a contract to build a 300-900 MW dish solar facility for San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E).  The power company has agreed to a contract to buy all the power produced by the 300 MW first phase of the project.  The plant will consist of 12,000 solar dishes located on approximately three square miles of land located in the Imperial Valley of California.   SDG&E has options to buy electricity from two additional 300 MW facilities.

This announcement comes on the heels of an August announcement to build a 500 MW  power station for Southern California Edison in the Mojave Desert. 

These two plants represent a huge boost for thermal solar power in general and for SES in particular.  These two plants make SES the largest supplier of solar power for electrical generation in the world.  Their system has a long history of development and demonstration and a lot of experience has been gained.  By reproducing a large quantity of the same model they reduce their risk.  They, as a company, have little manufacturing experience.  They have assembled strategic alliances with Kockums for supply of their Stirling engines and Shuff Steel for their steel fabrication and erection. This still puts a lot of pressure on a company like SES and I wish them the best of luck.

Resources:

300-900 MW Solar Project Planned for Southern California, Renewable Energy Access, 9/7/05
Stirling Energy Systems Inc., Phoenix, AZ

Technocrati tags: solar power, renewable energy, dish-Sterling systems

About Parabolic Trough Solar

Trough solar systems use parabolic curved, trough shaped reflectors focus the sun's energy onto a receiver pipe running at the focus of the reflector.  Because of their parabolic shape, troughs can focus the sun at 30-60 times its normal intensity on the receiver pipe.  The concentrated energy heats a heat transfer fluid (HTF), usually oil, flowing through the pipe.  This fluid is then used to generate steam which powers a turbine that drives an electric generator.  The collectors are aligned on and east-west axis and the trough is rotated to follow the sun to maximize the suns energy input to the receiver tube.  Click flow diagram above to see full size flow diagram of the new plants beig built in Spain.  Current cost of electricity from these plants is  $0.10 to $0.12 per kWh.  The current goal of ongoing development by EERE is to reduce the cost to $0.035 to $0.043 per kWh by 2020. 

Trough collector solar power, also called solar electric generating systems (SEGS), represent the most mature concentrating solar power (CSP) technology, with 354 MW of installed capacity in nine plants, built between 1984 and 1991, all located in the Mohave desert of California.  There are several generations of plants, the newer generations incorporating features that would reduce the cost of electricity if they were new plants.  All plants are still operating and producing power for the electrical grid at 99% availability.

The technology has been stagnant since 1993, but four new projects are now being developed. 

• In the US, a 1 MW plant is being built by Arizona Public Service's at its Saguaro Power Plant and a 64 MW plant is being built in Eldorado Valley near Boulder City, NV.  Solargenix is the prime contractor on both projects in conjunction with EERE/NREL.  SHOTT North America is supplying the receivers.  The Boulder City plant is currently scheduled to go on line in Jone 2007.  Funding for the American projects has been difficult, but on 10/4/04 the Western Governors Association and EERE announced funding and support of a 1000 MW goal of concentrating solar power for the region by 2010.  Included in this program is support for the two afore mentioned projects.  Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific Power Company have signed long term contracts to buy the power produced by the 64 MW plant.
• Two identical 50 MW plants are being built by Solar Millinium AG in Granada, Spain.  The first plant has received a €5 million (~$6.25 million) grant from the EU’s Fifth Framework Program and financial support from the German Ministry for Environment.  To encourage this type of technology the Spanish government has set up regional funding programs. This is coupled with a bonus of 12 Eurocents per kWh generated from solar power has been instrumental in bringing such projects to Spain.   
• A 150 MW facility that is to be expanded to 500 MW In the Negev desert of Israel is being developed by Solel (the successor company to Luz). Solel will establish a consortium to finance and build the power station, which it estimates will cost $1 billion. The state has promised to buy the electricity under the terms of a contract to be signed by the parties.

About Dish/Engine Concentrating Solar Power

Dish/engine concentrating solar power uses a mirror in the shape of a dish to collect and concentrates the sun's heat onto a small area where a receiver is located.  The receiver transfers the sun's energy to a heat engine, usually a Stirling cycle engine, that converts the energy into power.  Of all the solar technologies that hve been demonstrated on a practical scale the solar dish has the highest efficiency, 30%.   The electricity needs of the entire U. S. could theoretically be met by such a system, in the desert, in an area 100 miles on a side. 

The six dish system, shown at left, was installed by Stirling Energy Systems (SES) at Sandia National Laboratories in early 2005, the largest array of dish/Stirling systems in the world. Each unit operates automatically. Without operator intervention or even on-site presence, it starts up each morning at dawn and operates throughout the day, tracking the sun and responding to clouds and wind as needed. Finally it shuts itself down at sunset. The system can be monitored and controlled over the Internet. Experimental models of the Stirling dish technology have undergone more than 26,000 hours of successful solar operation. The cost for each prototype unit is about $150,000. Once in production SES estimates that the cost could be reduced to less than $50,000 each, ($2.00 per watt) which would make the cost of electricity competitive with conventional fuel technologies.

Southern California Edison (SCE) and Stirling Energy Systems have announced an agreement that could result in construction of the world’s largest solar facility, capable of producing more electricity than all other U.S. solar projects combined.  The SCE-SES project represents the first major application of Stirling dish technology in the commercial electricity generation field.  Initially, Stirling would build a one-MW test facility using 40 of the company’s 37-foot-diameter dish assemblies.  Subsequently, a 20,000-dish array would be constructed near Victorville, Calif.  The 20-year power purchase agreement signed August 9, 2005, which is subject to California Public Utilities Commission approval, calls for development of a 500-megawatt (MW) solar project 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles using innovative Stirling dish technology.  The agreement includes an option to expand the project to 850 MW.