Acciona Energia to Build Two 50-Megawatt Solar Thermal Power Plants in Spain
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 05.13.08
Spain to get more Solar Power
It was only a couple months ago that we wrote about Torresol's plans to build 3 new solar thermal power plants in Spain (price tag: $1.24 Billion). The good news keep rolling in and now it is Acciona Energia's turn to announce a 500 million euros investment (about $775 million) into 2 new solar thermal plants in Palma del Río, Cordoba, in southern Spain. Each will have a capacity of 50 megawatts and together they should be able to power 75,000 homes, or 244 million kWh a year. They should be operational in 2010.
"The plants will cover the area of about 260 hectares, or 364 soccer fields, comprising 1,520 solar collectors and a truly mind boggling 364,800 mirrors which will focus the sun’s rays into the collectors. "
Acciona Energia's Track Record with Renewable Energy
The first picture in this post is a photo of Nevada Solar One, the first concentrating solar power plant in the US, also built by Acciona Energia. The company is a heavyweight when it comes to renewable energy in general, not just with solar: "They are the world leader in wind power, totalling 5,300MW in 192 separate wind parks," and they also work with biomass, mini hydro, biofuels, cogeneration, etc. You can find out more about their environmental activities here.
Solar Power Around the Clock or just During Peaks?
It is not yet clear if Acciona Energia's solar power plants in Spain will use technology similar to Ausra's solar thermal system to produce power around the clock or if they will just help with peak power during the day (the more sun there is, the more demand for air conditioning there is, and the more a solar power plant produces, so that's good timing).
Solar Thermal Power
::Torresol to Build 3 Solar Thermal Power Plants in Spain for $1.24 Billion
::Solar Thermal Power in North-Africa: How Much Land to Power the World?
::Ausra: Solar Power Around the Clock, Enough for 90% of U.S. Grid
Solar Photovoltaic Power
::Hairy Solar Panels Could Result From Nanowire Breakthrough
::Sunrgi Xtreme Concentrated Photovoltaics: Solar Power Competitive With Fossil Fuels?
::Moth Eyes May Hold Secret to Better Solar Panels
::19.9%: New Thin Film Solar Efficiency Record
Wind Power
::Enercon E-126: The World’s Largest Wind Turbine (for now)
::No Recession for Wind Power Industry
::Wind Power Produces 123% of Residential Energy Demand in Rock Port, Missouri
More on Acciona Energia Solar Power Plant
::Acciona Energia Official Announcement
::Acciona Energy building $800 million solar thermal plant
Really cool. better in spain than germany, I guess.
I agree; this seems highly thought out. We have some similar technology in Scandinavia, but nowhere as advanced as this.
I read a thing recently about the 13 largest solar thermal plants under construction, and with the proposed expansions, I counted the combined capcity to be 5 GWs--pretty substantial stuff. Plus, per watt, solar (especially solar thermal) is more valuable then wind, for example, because it roughly follows the demand curve for electricity, so they should substantially cut the amount of natural gas we consume for peak-load power. It's slowed a little, but it seemed like for the first ~4 months of this year, they were talking about a new solar thermal plant that was going to be built. There's one company that has set up a plant in Nevada that'll be able to produce 700 MW/year of new solar thermal capacity. Definately a technology to watch.
Is it just me or does that look like a vast use of land?
Surely, it is better have a decentralised electricity supply (yes production efficiency is poorer, but then there are no transmission losses)? If everyone stuck turbines or panels on their roof that would should supply most homes needs. Also, if people aren't connected to a grid they are responsible for there own consumption. Rather than spending a few extra pounds here or there if they use to much, they have blackouts. Would cut consumption quite dramatically.
If you're interested in hearing more from Acciona, the CEO of Acciona North America, Peter Duprey, will be speaking at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum-Wall Street (www.REFFWallStreet.com), held June 18-19 in New York City. Mr. Duprey will join the CEOs of Abengoa Solar and BrightSource Energy in a discussion about the potential for solar thermal energy. Other topics for discussion at the event include solar photovoltaics, wind energy, biofuels, carbon finance, and more.
It's a lot of land, but not a lot if you look at the amount of land used in strip mining coal or flooding valleys for hydro.
Turbines are industrial scale beasts. They require on site technologists to keep them running. Wouldn't be possible at this point in time to downsize them for rooftops.
And apparently thermal solar is less expsensive than vast spreads of panels, even distributed on existing rooftops.
Later, we thin film and concentrated solar prices drop low enought (they're on the way down) operators can add thermal storage to these sites that they are now building and sell their power into the hours when panels aren't producing.
(And, if you can economically connect to the grid, do. I'm not connected as it would cost me about $300,000 to bring the lines to my house. Running your own utility system is much more demanding than writing a monthly check to the power company and considerably more expensive.)