CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER SET TO GROW.

CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER SET TO GROW. by Bruce Mulliken, Green Energy News

It will be called Starwood Solar 1. With a number in its name, the developers must be considering Starwood Solar 2. When complete in 2013, the 290 MW concentrating solar thermal power generation plant to be built in the Arizona desert will be the single largest dispatchable solar power plant in the world. Dispatchable means it can tapped for electricity as needed, such as peak periods when power demand is high, late in the afternoon, weekdays in particular.

Starwood represents the latest in a growing trend in solar energy: capturing and amplifying the Sun’s heat to make electricity. The time-tested technology – there are commercial concentrating solar power (CSP) plants operating since the 1980’s – could add perhaps thousands of megawatts of clean power to the grid in the coming decades. In the same way that mega-wind farms have sprouted in the windy regions of the U.S. (and the world), mega-solar concentrating plants could spread throughout sunny regions.

In comparison with wind energy, bird strikes are not an issue with CSP. However, there may be concerns over glare when these solar facilities are seen at certain angles. And there are concerns over the amount of property these solar farms require, but in that regard, those of us who live in heavily populated areas forget that much of the nation is still vast and under populated. We have plenty of space to build huge solar arrays, CSP or photovoltaic. Starwood Solar I will take up 1900 acres.

CSP, like Starwood, also has features that wind farms can’t match: the ability to store energy, thermal energy, that is. Starwood will store heat in insulated tanks of molten salt. Heat stored in the salt can be used when the Sun goes down or on cloudy days to generate electricity. At the Starwood CSP plant a working fluid is heated to high temperatures, 734 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat is used to make steam which turns turbogenerators to make electricity. When there’s no sun the heat stored in the molten salt will make the steam instead.

Starwood Energy Group Global and its affiliate Nautilus Solar Energy will develop the project but the actual construction will be put in the hands Lockheed Martin Corporation, best known as a defense contractor. Starwood Energy affiliate Starwood Solar I LLC will own the CSP plant.

Starwood will be a green job creator and economy builder. During construction between 2010 and 2013, $2.7 billion is expected to be spent for construction, engineering, operation and purchases of goods and services to outfit and maintain the project. The project will create 950 construction jobs, 50 engineering jobs and when complete 75 positions will be filled to operate the facility. Overall, direct and indirect jobs will total more than 7700. Indirect jobs will include those such as in the manufacturing of Starwood's 3500 100-meter long parabolic trough mirrors used to concentrate sunlight and jobs for those who build the large insulated tanks to hold that molten salt.

All of the power from Starwood – enough to serve 73,000 customers – will be sold to Arizona Public Service Company (APS) under a long term power purchase agreement (PPA). With Starwood Solar I, APS will be providing more solar electricity per customer than any other major utility in the United States.

Starwood Solar I will be located 75 miles west of Phoenix in the Harquahala Valley. The site was chosen for its abundant sunlight and proximity to existing transmission lines, electrical substations and access roads.

 

Links:

Starwood Energy Grouphttp://www.starwoodenergygroup.com

Nautilus Solar Energyhttp://www.nautilussolar.com/Projects/starwoodsolar1project.php

APS - Starwood Solar Ihttp://www.aps.com/main/various/StarwoodSolar1/default.html

Lockheed Martin Corporationhttp://www.lockheedmartin.com

 

Related:

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SolarTec International AG – Entry of investor finally determined

Posted on: May 26th, 2009 by solartec

Aschheim, 20.05.2009 – Photovoltaics company SolarTec International AG is being bought out of the SolarTec group by an international investor. Following the agreement of the creditor´s meeting of SolarTec AG the takeover now has also found legal consent.

After the insolvency of SolarTec AG by the End of 2008, the question about the future of the attractive core business-areas of PV-power-plants and concentrating-photovoltaics (CPV) was open. In February a Europe wide active technology investor expressed serious interest in continuing and expanding both business areas.

On May 14, 2009 the creditor´s meeting finally agreed to selling SolarTec International AG and both core business-areas of SolarTec AG, including important assets.

With the now legally effective takeover agreement as well as agreed financial funds, the start of SolarTec International AG is secured now!

In July, the start of construction of a 8 MW-PV-power-plant is scheduled, which shall be connected to the German grid already in 2009. Further solar parks are already under planning.
In focus of the project activities of SolarTec International AG are power plants in high-yield regions in Europe, Asia/India, USA and Africa.

The business division of concentrating photovoltaics (CPV) will push the development of an innovative solar technology. It aims at the commercial use of CPV-systems with yields of more than 35% thus topping commercially available technologies by far. Also the continuation of the partnership of SolarTec International AG within the EU-Project APOLLON has been secured by the acquisition agreement.

SolarTec International AG is the photovoltaics company for economically efficient and sustainable pv- solutions.

We focus our business on two areas:

Worldwide planning, realization and operation of PV-Power Plants

Development and marketing of highly-efficient and economical systems in concentrating photovoltaics (CPV)

We commit ourselves to solutions for securing tomorrows energy supply in combination with economically reasonable investment of resources and capital.

SolarTec International AG
Uhlandstraße 13
D-85609 Aschheim/München

http://www.solartec-ag.com

Contact:

Roland Hacker
Head of Marketing & Sales
SolarTec International AG
Tel. +49 / (0) 89 - 90 77 49 97-13
Fax +49 / (0) 89 - 90 77 49 97-69
Mail: pr@solartec-ag.com

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Concentrated solar power could generate 'quarter of world's energy'

Solar thermal is best suited to desert regions. Photograph: Ho/Reuters

Solar power stations that concentrate sunlight could generate up to one-quarter of the world's electricity needs by 2050, according to a study by environmental and solar industry groups. The technology, best suited to the desert regions of the world, could also create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and save millions of tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.

Concentrating solar power (CSP) uses mirrors to focus sunlight onto water. This produces steam that can then turn turbines and generate electricity. It differs from photovoltaics, which use solar panels to turn sunlight directly into electricity and can operate even on overcast days. CSP only works in places where there are many days with clear skies and is a proven, reliable technology.

At the end of 2008 CSP capacity was around 430MW, and worldwide investment in the technology will reach

€2bn (£1.8bn) this year, according to Sven Teske of Greenpeace International and co-author of the report. He said investment could increase, under a relatively moderate scenario, to €11.1bn by 2010 and provide 7% of the world's generating capacity by 2030. By 2050 investment could reach €92.5bn, creating almost 2m jobs by 2050 and saving 2.1bn tonnes of CO2 every year.

"Due to the feed-in tariff in Spain and a few schemes in the US, this technology is actually taking off and we wanted to highlight that we have a third big technology to fight climate change — wind, photovoltaics and now CSP," said Teske.

Spain is leading the field on CSP: more than 50 solar projects in the country have been approved for construction by the government and, by 2015, it will generate more than 2GW of power from CSP, comfortably exceeding current national targets. Spanish companies are also exporting their technology around the world.

Environmentalists argue that many countries in the "sun-belt" around the equator would benefit from CSP technology — including desert regions in the southern United States, north Africa, Mexico, China and India.

The new study, carried out by Greenpeace International, the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association and the International Energy Agency's (IEA) SolarPACES group, looked at three scenarios of future growth in CSP. The first was business-as-usual reference scenario that assumed no increases at all in CSP; the second continued the CSP investments seen in recent years in places such as Spain and the US; while the advanced scenario was most optimistic, removing all political and investment barriers to give figures for the true potential of CSP.

Under the third, most optimistic, scenario there could be a giant surge in investments to €21bn a year by 2015 and €174bn a year by 2050, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. In this case, solar plants would have installed capacity of 1,500GW by 2050 and provide 25% of the world's electricity capacity. Even in the second scenario, which sees only modest increases, the world's combined CSP capacity could reach 830GW by 2050, representing up to 12% of the world's energy generation needs.

Teske acknowledged that these estimates were far higher than official figures from the IEA. It says that by 2050, CSP would provide only0.2% of global power generation. But Teske added that the IEA analysis does not assume any increases in production capacity in the next few decades, hence CSP forms a very small part of the overall energy mix.

The new report also said that CSP technology was improving rapidly, with many new power plants fitted with storage systems for steam so that they could continue to operate at night. In addition it said the cost of the electricity produced , currently at €0.15 to €0.23 a kilowatt, would fall to €0.10-€0.14 by 2020 if governments continued to support the technology with incentives such as feed-in tarriffs.

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Sempra Generation will turn up juice with expansion of solar-power ...

"We won't start construction until we have a contract in hand," Sempra spokesman Art Larson said. "We're talking to a number of utilities and potential customers to gauge their interest in the facility. We hope to start construction later this year."

Buyers could come from California and also Arizona, which seeks a 25 percent renewable benchmark by 2025. Nevada similarly wants 20 percent of its power to come from renewable resources by 2025, with 5 percent originating from solar.

Sempra's existing facility, El Dorado Solar Energy, rests on 80 acres of desert land ground-leased from Boulder City for 20 years. It's next to parent Sempra's 480-megawatt natural gas-fired, combined-cycle El Dorado Energy power plant that opened in May 2000, which means transmission lines are already in place. The installation consists of 167,000 thin-film photovoltaic panels mounted to stationary space frames anchored by light-gauge steel pilings. First Solar Inc., which built the original facility, is returning for the expansion. The Tempe, Ariz.-based company will serve as engineering, procurement and construction contractor, and oversee its operations when complete.

Plans call for another 830,000 thin-film photovoltaic panels, generating 48 megawatts, on 380 acres designated as a renewable energy zone by Boulder City. The project will create about 200 construction jobs. Panels measure 3.6 feet long by 2 feet wide and weigh 26.5 pounds; there are 15 panels per frame. Construction entails drilling 100,000 pilings. Sempra is self-financing the project and did not disclose costs; it's also taking advantage of a 30 percent federal investment tax credit. The combined 58-megawatt, 997,000-panel facility, renamed Copper Mountain Solar, is expected to begin service by late 2010.

"Thin films are about 50 percent less efficient than conventional silicon solar panels, and require twice as much space to generate the same amount of power," said Joe Verrengia, a spokesman with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo. "The potential advantage lies in reducing materials and manufacturing costs."

First Solar uses cadmium telluride and sulfide semiconductor material with an assembly-line production process that lowers manufacturing costs to 93 cents a watt. It's roughly half the production cost of silicon panels, say company officials. Panels, which have a 25-year life span, can be produced within 2.5 hours. They yield a 10.9 percent conversion rate from sunlight into energy.

Acciona, by comparison, achieves a 25 percent conversion rate at its 64-megawatt solar power plant, which is also near Boulder City. The 2-year-old Nevada Solar One facility uses concentrating solar thermal technology. Roughly 190,000 curved parabolic mirrors concentrate sunlight to 750-degrees Fahrenheit to heat synthetic oil inside tubes that create steam and drive turbines to produce electricity. Acciona currently has a 40-year ground lease with Boulder City to occupy 350 square acres in the Eldorado Valley. The city receives about a $1 million annually in rent payments between Acciona and Sempra.

PowerLight, meanwhile, achieves a 25 percent conversion rate at its 14-megawatt photovoltaic installation at Nellis Air Force Base. The Solar Star facility, opened in 2007, uses 72,000 photovoltaic monocrystalline wafer panels containing nearly 6 million solar cells. It uses a tracking technology that rotates photovoltaic panels throughout the day to follow the sunlight. Solar Star consequently achieves a conversion rate that is 10 percent higher than the industry average, PowerLight CEO Thomas Werner claims.

Photovoltaic film, however, like the kind found at El Dorado Solar Energy, is lightweight and can be manufactured in large quantities using methods similar to newspaper printing, officials say. Panels use layers of layers of semiconductor materials only a few micrometers thick; they require only a tiny fraction of the materials found in conventional cells. It makes thin film cheap, quick and easy to mass-produce.

"Researchers and manufacturers are looking at each step in the process to squeeze efficiencies, boost scale and go faster," Verrengia said. "Thin films also can be manufactured in more conventional industrial conditions. And rather than being built into rigid panels, they can be incorporated onto inexpensive and conventional building materials such as glass or metal. This integrated approach also has aesthetic advantages because the thin films can be installed flush into roofs, windows and walls."

Contact reporter Tony Illia at tonyillia@aol.com or 702-303-5699.
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Solar power could surge by 2050 in deserts-report

* Pro-solar groups say could generate a quarter of power * Investments to exceed 2 bln euros this year By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent PARIS, May 25 (Reuters) - Solar power plants in deserts using mirrors to concentrate the sun's rays have the potential to generate up to a quarter of the world's electricity by 2050, a report by pro-solar groups said on Monday. The study, by environmental group Greenpeace, the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association (ESTELA) and the International Energy Agency's (IEA) SolarPACES group, said huge investments would also create jobs and fight climate change. "Solar power plants are the next big thing in renewable energy," said Sven Teske of Greenpeace International and co-author of the report. The technology is suited to hot, cloudless regions such as the Sahara or Middle East. The 28-page report said investments in concentrating solar power (CSP) plants were set to exceed 2 billion euros ($2.80 billion) worldwide this year, with the biggest installations under construction in southern Spain and California. "Concentrating solar power could meet up to 7 percent of the world's projected power needs in 2030 and a full quarter by 2050," it said of the most optimistic scenario. That assumes a giant surge in investments to 21 billion euros a year by 2015 and 174 billion a year by 2050, creating hundrds of thousands of jobs. Under that scenario, solar plants would have installed capacity of 1,500 gigawatts by 2050. That is far more optimistic than business-as-usual projections by the Paris-based IEA, which advises rich nations. It indicates that "by 2050 the penetration of solar power would be no higher than 0.2 percent globally," the report noted. CSP uses arrays of hundreds of mirrors or lenses to concentrate the sun's rays to temperatures between 400 and 1,000 Celsius (750-1,800 Fahrenheit) to provide energy to drive a power plant. SUNNY It differs from solar photovoltaics, which turn the sun's rays directly into electricity in panels and generate some power even on overcast days. CSP works only under sunny skies. "We now have a third billion-dollar technology alongside wind and solar photovoltaics," Teske told Reuters. The report said generation costs range from 0.15 to 0.23 euros per kilowatt hour -- above fossil fuels or many renewables -- and would fall to 0.10-0.14 euros by 2020. Guaranteed sales prices were needed to spur investments, it said. CSP installations made up just 430 Megawatts of the world's electricity generation capacity at the end of 2008. "CSP plants can deliver reliable industry-scale power supply around the clock due to storage technologies and hybrid operations within the power plant," said Jose Nebrera, president of ESTELA. (For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: blogs.reuters.com/environment/) (Editing by Richard Williams),

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Starwood Solar Signs Power Purchase Agreement With Arizona Public ...

(Source: Datamonitor)Starwood Energy Group Global, a private investment firm focused on energy infrastructure projects, has announced that its affiliate, Starwood Solar I, has signed a definitive power purchase agreement with the Arizona Public Service Company.

Starwood Solar will contract with Lockheed Martin Corporation to construct a 290MW concentrating solar trough plant in Harquahala Valley, Arizona and commit all the renewable energy and capacity from the facility to Arizona Public Service Company (APS) under the power purchase agreement (PPA).

The facility is scheduled to be completed in 2013 and it will provide enough electricity for nearly 73,000 APS electricity customers.

The facility is the direct result of Starwood Energy's ongoing teaming agreement with Lockheed Martin to build utility-scale solar power facilities and is a customized response to APS which is seeking to further expand its sources of energy from renewable sources.

The plant will be located in the Maricopa County, Arizona, approximately 75 miles west of Phoenix, and will be owned by Starwood Solar, with all the power generated by the facility provided to APS through a long-term PPA.

Lockheed Martin will be responsible for engineering, procurement and construction, as well as operations and maintenance when the facility is complete.

Over the next 12 months, Starwood Energy and its affiliate Nautilus Solar Energy will work to complete permitting and structure and place the construction and permanent financing Starwood Energy acquired Nautilus to expand its solar development platform in December 2008.

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.


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FROM PROPANE TO EXTERNAL HEAT ENGINES.

FROM PROPANE TO EXTERNAL HEAT ENGINES. by Bruce Mulliken, Green Energy News

I like propane. (That has a nicer ring than “I like liquified petroleum gas” propane’s other name.)

As a young teenager I learned to use a propane torch to sweat-solder copper pipes; a skill I’ve never regretted learning. (I’ve never had to call a plumber to fix pipes.)

Once, crewing on a hot air balloon, I attempted (with the encouragement of the pilot) to chill a ritual, after-flight bottle of champagne on the not-burning, subzero, expanding gases from the balloon’s propane tank. The bottle exploded in my face. No damage done: I still like propane. (I’ve never really liked champagne anyway.)

Propane is the world’s other fuel after gasoline, diesel and natural gas. It was the first clean fuel. With a low emission exhaust it’s OK to operate propane burning forklifts inside buildings, even big box stores filled with customers. Safe in a variety of sizes of pressurized tanks, it’s sold directly to consumers with only limited concern by government safety regulators. How many fuels do you find sitting on store shelves or storefront racks? Not many, outside the hazardous flammable chemicals in the paint department.

There are millions, perhaps hundreds of millions, of homes worldwide that use propane for heat, hot water and cooking. Worldwide there are more vehicles that run on propane than natural gas. Propane is used for camp stoves, camp lighting, portable heaters, refrigeration for recreational vehicles, and of course a source of heat to keep hot air balloons aloft.

Now there’s another use for propane; fueling grass trimmers. LEHR, of Los Angeles, California, markets a line of propane-fueled lawn trimmers that use the same propane canisters as camp stoves or my torch. Just spin on a new tank to refuel and enjoy trimming your yard without polluting your environs or the neighborhood.

(By comparison, gasoline-fueled trimmers dirtier than your car; battery-powered trimmers, don’t have the oomph of the gas ones; and plug-in trimmers have the long cord issue. Of course, muscle power works, but try telling lawn maintenance companies to give up their power tools.)

Using screw-on disposable tanks to fuel a lawn trimmer might seem as it’s creating another waste problem (all those partly-filled little steel tanks thrown in the trash) but in fact the tanks are refillable. Northern Tools sells a Propane Filler Coupler that will connect a one-pound tank to a 20 pound propane tank like that used for gas grills. (Please follow directions and don’t blow yourself up.)

The LEHR trimmers have just won an award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in its Annual Clean Air Excellence Awards Program.

There may yet be another use for propane if Cyclone Power Technologies, of Pompano Beach, Florida can convince a few more people that its Cyclone Engine is a good alternative to the conventional internal combustion engine.

Also known as a Schoell-cycle engine after the inventor and now company CEO Harry Schoell, the Cyclone is an external combustion heat recovery engine that uses continuous combustion rather than intermittent explosions inside cylinders to make it run.

Continuous combustion means that fuel burns completely, cleanly and more efficiently. The engine will run on just about anything that burns, petroleum, biofuels, you name it, but for some applications the company suggests using propane cylinders, like those sold in tool sections of hardware and other stores.

The company has a wide variety of application possibilities for the Cyclone, including lawn trimmers or your car.

Cyclone also has more plans than just using propane or other combustibles.

Since the Cyclone technology is really a heat engine, the company has also developed a Waste Heat Engine (WHE) that could run on heat as low as 225 degrees F. The company says waste heat from commercial or small-scale industrial ovens or furnaces, concentrating solar thermal collectors, engine exhaust or biomass combustion are all possibilities for heat. The heat recovery technology, which is being integrated with the Cyclone engine, comes from Waste Heat Resources, of Londonderry, New Hampshire.

If you’ve noticed the words “concentrating solar thermal collectors” in the above sentence, this heat-source possibility is already a business maker for the company. Cyclone Power Technologies has signed a license agreement with Renovalia Energy, of Madrid, Spain. Under the agreement, Cyclone with Renovalia will design a compact, high-efficiency Schoell Cycle external heat engine to be coupled with Renovalia’s proprietary thermoelectric solar stations. The Spanish energy company plans to manufacture prototypes and then, if tests prove viable, production models of the engine, called Cyclone Solar I, which could be deployed worldwide with their solar stations within a year.

The license provides for Cyclone to receive upfront design fees and ongoing royalties for its engines. Renovalia and Seminole Electric Cooperative have signed a letter of intent to build a solar concentrating power plant in the Sunshine State.

The U.S. military, including the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) is also interested in the Cyclone engine for unmanned underwater vehicles.

 

Links:

Cyclone Power Technologieshttp://www.cyclonepower.com

Waste Heat Resourceshttp://www.wasteheatresources.com

LEHRhttp://www.golehr.com

Northern Tool and Equipmenthttp://www2.northerntool.com

Renovalia Energyhttp://www.renovaliaenergy.es

 

 

 

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