Concentrating Solar Power(CSP) Recent activity highlights

• In February 2008, Abengoa Solar signed a contract with Arizona Public Service Co. (APS), one of Arizona’s leading energy utilities, to build, own and operate the 280 MW Solana plant. The plant, scheduled to go into operation by 2011, will be located south west of Phoenix Arizona. It will sell the electricity produced to APS over the next 30 years for a total revenue of around $4 billion. The installation at the plant will include six hours of molten salt thermal storage to improve its load following characteristics.
• In April 2008, Northern Californian utility group Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) entered into a series of contracts with BrightSource Energy, Inc. for renewable solar power. The first three contracts are for a total of 500 MW of power to be supplied from three concentrating solar thermal power plants. PG&E also signed two contracts for options on an additional 400 MW of solar power, which would bring the total amount of power purchased under these five agreements to some 900 MW. Founder and chairman of BrightSource Energy, Arnold Goldman, was also the founder of Luz International (no longer in operation). Goldman and the Luz International team built the nine SEGS plants in California’s Mojave Desert between 1984 and 1990. BrightSource is currently developing a number of solar power plants in Southern California, with construction of the first plant planned to start in 2009. In June, BrightSource Energy and subsidiary Luz II dedicated their Solar Energy Development Center (SEDC) in the Negev’s Rotem Industrial Park, Israel.
• Ibereólica Solar is developing 1000 MW of thermosolar plants in Spain, in the autonomous regions of Extremadura, Andalucia, Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León. Ibereólica currently expects construction of its first eight thermosolar power plants (totalling 400 MW) by mid-2011.
• In May, Ibereólica Solar placed an order with Solel of Israel for more than 190,000 UVAC 2008 receiver systems to power eight 50 MW solar power plants Ibereólica is developing in southern Spain. Delivery of the receivers will commence in 2009.
• In March, Spanish engineering group Sener Grupo De Ingeniería S.A. and Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s alternative energy company, announced a 60:40 joint venture – Torresol Energy – to design, build and operate concentrating solar power (CSP) plants in the world’s sunbelt regions. This joint venture will commence work on three solar power plants in Spain with an approximate combined value of €800 million, one of which will be a CSP central tower receiver system. This technology will feature the first-ever commercial deployment of the industry-changing technology, and will set the standards for anticipated CSP projects across the sunbelt countries by 2012. Independently of Torresol Energy, Masdar is developing CSP plants in Abu Dhabi, and their Shams 1 plant is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2010.
• Sener has been working for almost a decade in the development of solar thermal power technology. The company is presently designing and building, in a joint venture, three 50 MW parabolic trough plants with molten salt storage in Spain.
• Ausra has just signed a power purchase agreement with PG&E to build the world’s first compact linear Fresnel reflector (CLFR) plant at 177 MW in California’s Central Valley.
• Solel is to construct a 553 MW complex of parabolic trough power plants in the Mojave Desert to fulfill a 25-year power purchase agreement with PG&E.
• Solar Tres, a central receiver design based on the US demonstration plant of the late 1990s, is reported to be close to obtaining financing, making it the first baseload solar power plant with round-the-clock power generation during the summer.
• Iberdrola is building a 50 MW parabolic trough plant at Puertollano in southern Castile, with plans for others.
• Southern California Edison (SCE) has signed a power purchase agreement with eSolar for a total of 245 MW from a series of prefabricated power tower solar thermal plants in the Antelope Valley region of Southern California. This will be the first commercial effort using the technology. By 2012 a 105 MW of operating capacity is scheduled for completion, ramping up to 245 MW by 2013. The development follows a $130 million funding round for eSolar in April led by Idealab, Google.org and Oak Investment Partners.
• Meanwhile, Schott is building new manufacturing plant for solar receiver tubes, both in Albuquerque, New Mexico and in Spain and Australia’s Ausra has opened a manufacturing facility in Las Vegas, Nevada.