Updated at 2:30 p.m. PST with additional information on PG&E deal.
SolarReserve said on Tuesday it has signed a deal to build a utility-scale solar plant in Nevada with a molten salt storage system that will let it supply power when the sun isn't shining.
The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company has a 25-year power purchase agreement with utility NV Energy to supply about 480,000 megawatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to power about 75,000 homes during peak times. The capacity of the concentrating solar system will be 100 megawatts and be located near the town of Tonopah in Nye County, Nev.
The plant will use a field of heliostats--large mirrors that track the movement of the sun--to heat molten salt held in a tower. That liquid salt is heated to over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit and transferred to storage tanks. It is then fed into a loop where it creates steam that turns a turbine to generate electricity. The colder molten salt is recaptured and fed back into tanks to be heated again.
Click for larger image.
(Credit: SolarReserve)The company did not indicate how many hours of storage it intends to have at the Tonapah plant but said that the solar field will be able to deliver energy at peak times even when the sun isn't shining.
Construction of the project is expected by the end of 2010, but it still needs approval from the Nevada Public Utilities Commission.
The southwest U.S. is prime land for concentrated solar thermal technology, which needs the right sun angle and a lot of sunlight. Utilities in California and other states are pursuing large-scale solar projects to meet state mandates for renewable energy generation.
The addition of a storage system adds to the overall cost per kilowatt-hour of solar. But it allows the power producer to deliver electricity during peak times when the cost of electricity is highest.
Also on Tuesday, California utility Pacific Gas & Electric said that it has signed a contract to purchase electricity from a SolarReserve-developed project at the Rice Airfield in San Bernardino County, Calif.
The proposed Rice Solar Energy project, which has not yet been approved by state regulators, would produce 150 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power 60,000 average homes, starting in 2013, according to PG&E.
In a company blog, PG&E said that the molten salt storage technology was successfully demonstrated in the 1990s at the Solar Two power plant in California, and plants in Spain have also used the technique. "Best of all, a well-insulated storage tank for molten salt can be 99 percent efficient, so it loses heat only very gradually," company representative Jonathan Marshall wrote.
First Solar employees work on the solar power station in Blythe, Calif.
(Credit: First Solar)Solar module maker First Solar on Monday opened the largest photovoltaic solar power station in California, which the company plans to replicate in order to expand its utility business.
The plant in Blythe, Calif., which First Solar purchased from energy developer NRG, will have the capacity to generate 21 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power about 17,000 homes. It will supply electricity to Southern California Edison under a 20-year purchase power agreement.
It's one of a number of projects that First Solar is pursuing as it seeks to expand in the utility-scale solar business. A deal to build a 48-megawatt plant in California to supply Pacific Gas & Electric was approved last week. "The development, project finance and construction of this solar plant demonstrate First Solar's capabilities in utility scale projects," Bruce Sohn, president of First Solar, said in a statement.
First Solar's panels, which use thin film solar cells made from cadmium telluride, are considered the lowest cost solar panel in the industry. The company's relatively low cost and the technology's track record make it attractive to utilities that need to meet the California renewable energy mandate.
As of July 2009, First Solar has four manufacturing plants in Malaysia, as well as a North American plant in Perrysburg Township, Ohio.
(Credit: First Solar)First Solar has produced and shipped 1 gigawatt's worth of photovoltaic solar systems for 2009, the company announced Wednesday.
Hitting the gigawatt mark--the equivalent of 1,000 megawatts or 1 billion watts--is significant as it shows a drastic rise in production and consumer interest. First Solar, which makes cadmium telluride solar cells and panels, produced only about 75 megawatts in 2007, and between 420 megawatts and 460 megawatts in 2008, according to the company's own statistics.
But the leap shouldn't be a surprise: the solar company has been signing massive deals with municipalities over the last year. In March, First Solar announced that it had acquired the rights to complete about 1,300 megawatts worth of utility-scale projects that its rival OptiSolar was unable to finish. Then in August, First Solar signed a deal with Southern California Edison to supply solar modules for a 250-megawatt solar power installation for Desert Center in Riverside County and a 300-megawatt installation in San Bernardino County.
There is promise of more to come. In September, First Solar announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with China to partner on a massive, 2,000-megawatt power plant in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia. While the entire project is not scheduled to be completed until 2019, 1,000 megawatts are to be installed by 2014.
First Solar's increased volume may also be having an effect on its bottom line. The company announced earlier this year that it had broken the "the $1 per watt barrier" for manufacturing costs.
(Credit:
Easy Energy)
Outdoorsy types are sure to love mobile solar chargers, but what about those who rarely see sunlight? (No, we're not referring to "Twilight.")
Easy Energy will launch the YoGen, a mobile charger that solely relies on hand power. The pocket-size charger lets you generates energy by repeatedly pulling a ripcord, similar to the way a lawnmower is started.
YoGen Max generates energy through a foot pedal.
(Credit: Easy Energy)The Las Vegas-based company created this product as a part of its mission to "satisfy the enormous worldwide demand for practical, compact, 'green energy producing' manpowered chargers." Easy Energy is also in the process of launching YoGen Max, a laptop charger that lets you generate energy by continually pressing a foot pedal.
Similar technology can be credited to Baylis, a company that created a wind-up MP3 player in 2008.
Preorders can be placed at the YoGen store and will ship within the next month. The $40 charger is available in black or clear, but you'll have to choose between Apple and ... Read more
California regulators on Thursday approved an ambitious project to beam solar energy from space starting in 2016.
Under a power purchase agreement approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, utility Pacific Gas & Electric will purchase electricity from technology provider Solaren if it successfully deploys its space-based solar collectors, which would be the first of its kind.
PG&E has contracted to buy 1,700 gigawatt hours per year for 15 years from Solar for its space-based solar arrays, which will have a generating capacity of 200 megawatts. That's smaller than a full scale nuclear or natural gas plant but enough to supply thousands of homes. The anticipated date of operation is June, 2016.
(Credit:
PG&E)
Space-based solar, an idea that has been around for decades, is being pursued by companies and researchers around the world. Its key advantage over land-based solar or wind power is that can generate renewable energy around the clock. The California Public Utilities Commission gave the go-ahead to the project in an effort to meet the state's aggressive ... Read more
The Panasonic TC-P50V10 plasma flat-panel HDTV.
(Credit: Panasonic)Panasonic plans to invest $1 billion by 2012 to develop green technologies for the home that would include energy-monitoring systems, marking a major shift in the company's focus.
Panasonic President Fumio Ohtsubo said in an interview with the Bloomberg news service this week that growing consumer interest in more efficient products has led Panasonic to decide to develop new core businesses.
"Our growth is not enough . So we want to change our fighting ring from our current categories to a different field," Ohtsubo told Bloomberg.
The company plans to offer home energy management systems, as well as develop existing interests in lithium ion batteries for electric cars, solar panels, and smart appliances.
Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that the world's leading plasma-TV manufacturer is getting rid of its star product.
As one of its green product ideas, Ohtsubo told Bloomberg about a system in development that would allow people to monitor the electricity generation of their solar panels and the electricity use of ... Read more
SolarReserve and Preneal have garnered the necessary permit to build a 50-megawatt thermal-solar plant in Spain that will use molten salt to store and release solar energy, the companies said Wednesday.
The project will be built in Alcazar de San Juan, a town about 110 miles south of Madrid. The environmental permit that will allow the construction of a project using molten salt was issued by the local Castilla-La Mancha government.
The Santa Monica, Calif.-based start-up, SolarReserve uses a fairly unique method to offer power from a solar plant even after the sun sets.
While the sun is shining, giant heliostats reflect sunlight into a center pool of hot, liquefied salt that absorbs the heat. The molten salt, which can be kept hot even at night or on cloudy days for up to 24 sunless hours, is used to feed a steam-generated turbine to make electricity. The salt is then redirected out of the generator to be reheated and used again.
SolarReserve's partner on the Spain project, Madrid-based Preneal, is a development and ... Read more
LOS ANGELES--Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures-backed solar-thermal start-up Ausra is in talks with three potential buyers to sell itself, two sources familiar with the company told Reuters on Friday.
The buyers could take a majority stake or snag the whole company and the discussions are at a "very aggressive level," said one source familiar with the company, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Both sources said the interested companies were global conglomerates in the power generation business but declined to name them. The companies already have various power products, such as steam and gas turbines, and are committed to renewable energy. One interested party has engaged with Ausra previously, one source said.
Ausra declined to comment.
A sale of the high-profile Silicon Valley start-up that has raised $130 million in venture capital would add to a string of recent deals and growing consolidation in the solar-power industry.
Chinese solar-wafer manufacturer ReneSola plans to buy Dynamic Green Energy while silicon maker MEMC Electronic Materials plans to acquire privately held SunEdison, which installs, maintains, ... Read more
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Additional stories from Reuters
New Jersey regulators on Tuesday approved a proposal from utility Public Service Electric and Gas to expand its solar loan program by $143 million and 51 megawatts.
The program expansion means a total of $248 million in loans, translating into an estimated 81 megawatts worth of solar systems available to interested homeowners, businesses, and municipalities across the state.
Public Service Electric and Gas already has a program to install 200,000 solar panels from Petra Solar on N.J. utility poles and street lamps.
(Credit: Petra Solar)Since Public Service Electric and Gas' (PSE&G's) first loan program for installing photovoltaic panels was approved in April 2008, about $105 million in loans, totaling 30 megawatts worth of solar systems, have been applied for by its customers, according to company statistics. While its seen as an expansion, the next round of funding is technically a completely new program approved by the N.J. Board of Public Utilities (BUP) with specific regulations.
The Solar Loan II Program will run on a first-come, first-served basis for the ... Read more
Painting the Golden Gate Bridge yellow might cause less fuss than trying to install a wind farm off Cape Cod's historic coast.
But when you're trying to build where the wind is strongest or the sun is brightest, you never know what obstacles you may run into.
In Massachusetts, a proposed wind farm called Cape Wind was dealt a blow last Friday that will delay what would be the first offshore wind farm in the U.S. The Massachusetts Historical Commission agreed with local Indian tribes who claim that the location for the wind farm should be considered for listing in the National Historic Register because the Wampanoags' history and culture are "inextricably linked to Nantucket Sound," according to the opinion.
An offshore wind farm in north Wales, U.K.
(Credit: Vestas)"If the tribes are successful, that would have a severe chilling effect (on the entire wind industry) because tribes up and down the coast could make the same claim," said Mark Rodgers, the communications director for Cape Wind. "Never before has
... Read more
