The role of the 45-acre, $32 million plant is to commercially demonstrate the company’s proprietary thermal storage system and show its ability to improve the efficiency of a facility by 50 percent. It has worked on this technology for the last five years.
The plant will generate power with a concentrator design, meaning it will use mirrors to concentrate the sun’s rays to heat parabolic troughs with oil in them. The new technology allows for increased production after the sun goes down due to the ability to store the heated material.
“We are excited about demonstrating how our thermal storage system, with scale up cost efficiencies, can make solar power more reliable and cost competitive with fossil fuel energy,” said Joseph Bell Jr., president of Bell Independent Power Corp. “By storing the heated oil, you can release it later, after the sun has gone down to create energy when the customer needs it.”
Construction of the plant is expected to begin in late spring or early summer, depending on the permitting process. The construction of the solar plant will create 75 jobs and the facility will require seven full-time employees for operation. The plant will have the capacity to power 1,500 typical Tucson homes and will begin supplying power to Tucson homes in 2011.
Tucson Electric Power has asked the Arizona Corporation Commission to approve its plan to purchase power from the plant over a 20-year period. It expects to receive the approval this quarter.
“We’re happy to support the development of this remarkable renewable energy resource right here in Tucson,” said Paul Bonavia, chairman, president and CEO of TEP and its parent company UniSource Energy. “The innovative storage technology built into this plant should provide us with clean, green renewable power in the late afternoon hours when our customers’ energy usage typically reaches its peak.”
Tucson City Councilwoman Shirley Scott, whose ward includes the Tech Park, said, “We have so many different kinds of technology here and I really would love to see more come and for Tucson to become a proving ground of sorts for new solar technology. You can put all these different technologies under the same conditions and find out which really technology works well.”
Bell’s concentrated solar plant is the first major project announced in Southern Arizona since the state approved an incentive program giving tax breaks that are tied to job creation for renewable-energy equipment factories that expand or locate in Arizona.
Joe Snell, president and CEO of TREO said this new plant on top of the incentives really “put us in the game to aggressively continue solar business development in Southern Arizona.”
Contact reporter Joe Pangburn at jpangburn@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4259.
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