APS (Arizona Public Service Co.) Announces New Solar Power Plant, Among World's Largest

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.aps.com/general_info/newsrelease/newsreleases/NewsRelease_440.html

APS Announces New Solar Power Plant, Among World's Largest

February 21, 2008

Phoenix, AZ -

Arizona Public Service Co. (APS) today announced plans for one of the world’s largest solar facilities – a 280-megawatt (MW) concentrating solar power (CSP) plant to be built 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, near Gila Bend, Ariz.

The Solana Generating Station will produce enough energy to serve 70,000 APS customers when operating at full capacity. The plant will be built by Abengoa Solar Inc., and is scheduled to provide renewable energy beginning in 2011. Spanish for “sunny place,” Solana will not emit greenhouse gases and will provide APS with more solar electricity per customer than any utility in the U.S. The facility also would be the largest solar power plant in the world if in operation today.

“APS is committed to making Arizona the solar capital of the world and bringing affordable renewable energy to all our customers,” said APS President Don Brandt. “The Arizona Corporation Commission has challenged Arizona utilities to be leaders in renewable energy, and we are responding aggressively.”

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano praised APS today at an event announcing plans for the project. “This is a major milestone for Arizona in our efforts to increase the amount of renewable energy available in the United States,” the Governor said. “Arizona is leading the way in protecting our world for future generations through combating climate change, fighting for air quality and much more. This plant will offer Arizonans a clean and efficient source of energy.”

...

[OKIsItJustMe]

1. Arizona's Day in the Sun

http://www.businessweek.com/investing/greenbiz/archives/2008/02/the_past_year_h.html

Arizona's Day in the Sun

Posted by: John Carey on February 21

The past year has brought a remarkable resurgence of an old idea — using mirrors to harness the heat of the sun to generate power. Such so-called concentrating solar power (CSP) plants are huge affairs, with acres and acres of mirrors and a hulking steam turbine. Pacific Gas & Electric and Florida Power & Light are among the utilities that have signed up to purchase hundreds of megawatts of solar thermal power from such plants. (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_42/b4054053.htm?chan=search) And on Feb. 22, the newest completed plant, a 64 MW facility in the Nevada desert, is being dedicated in a ceremony that includes green advocate Ed Begley, Jr., Dr. Sally Ride, and Steve Wozniak.

Now comes the latest reminder that these big solar facilities may become more than a niche source of the nation’s electricity. On Feb. 21, Arizona Public Service announced plans for a 280 MW powerplant to be built 70 miles southwest of Phoenix. “This will be one of many solar plants,” predicts Don Brandt, president of Arizona Public Service. “We’ll look back on this as one of the turning points.”

Part of the impetus for APS’s plunge into solar power is a government mandate. Under Arizona’s renewable energy standard, the state’s regulated utilities must generate 15% of the electricity from renewable sources by 2025.

But to Brandt, the bigger reason is that “it happens to make good business sense.” Under the terms of the contract with Spanish renewable energy giant Abengoa, Brandt’s company will buy power from the facility at an average price of 14 cents per kilowatt-hour over the next 30 years. That’s 10-20% more than today’s price of electricity from a natural gas fired plant. But “when we calculate it out, we have to look at the risk,” Brandt explains. Natural gas prices will go up. In addition, mandatory limits on the emissions of carbon dioxide are coming. That will increase the cost of using fossil fuel. So locking in a price that’s only modestly higher than natural gas now looks smart. “The sun is not going to get any more expensive,” Brandt says. “This take the price risk off the table.”

...

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. The power of concentration

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10727996

The power of concentration

Feb 21st 2008

ON FEBRUARY 22nd, at an event featuring film stars, astronauts and technology gurus, Acciona, a Spanish conglomerate, is due to inaugurate a new power plant a few miles from Las Vegas. In fact, the plant has been running since last June. But the technology it uses, known as “concentrating solar power” (CSP), is hot right now, as the Hollywood luminaries might put it.

Acciona's new plant, called “Nevada Solar One”, can generate up to 64 megawatts (MW)—enough, it says, to power more than 14,000 homes. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) says that more CSP plants, with a total capacity of 4,000MW, are in the pipeline and have signed contracts to sell their future output. An 11MW plant opened in Spain last year (pictured). New Energy Finance, a research firm, estimates that 2,000MW of capacity is in the works in Europe.

As their name suggests, CSP plants generate electricity by concentrating the sun's rays, usually to boil water. The resulting steam drives turbines similar to those found at power plants that run on coal or natural gas. There are several different designs. The Nevada plant uses long curved mirrors, called parabolic troughs, to focus light on a tube of fluid running just above them. The Spanish plant uses a forest of smaller mirrors to focus light on a tower in their midst. Other concepts involve long flat mirrors and devices resembling satellite dishes.

Solar power, of course, does not produce climate-changing greenhouse gases. But it also excites utilities because it generates the most power just when it is needed: on hot, sunny days when people turn on air conditioners. And CSP provides a way around the main drawbacks of solar power from photovoltaic cells. Unlike them, it does not involve expensive silicon wafers. And some designs provide power round the clock, not just when the sun is shining, by storing energy in the form of molten salt.

...