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The Solar Project

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Aerial view of the Solar Two facility.

The Solar Projects Solar One, Solar Two and Solar Tres are solar-thermal projects in the Mojave Desert and Spain.

Solar One

Solar One is a pilot solar-thermal project in the Mojave Desert just east of Barstow, California. Solar One was the first test of a large scale thermal solar power tower, power plant. Solar One was designed by the Department of Energy (DOE), Southern California Edison, LA Dept of Water and Power, and California Energy Commission. It was located in Daggett, California, which is about 10 miles east of Barstow. Solar One's method of collecting power was based on concentrating the sun's energy to produce heat and run a generator. It had a number of large mirrors, or heliostats, that track the sun, reflecting the sun's light on a large tower. A black-colored receiver, on top of the tower, transferred the heat to an oil transfer fluid. The heat was then used to boil water, which turned turbines, much like a traditional power plant. It produced 10 MW of electricity by using 1818 mirrors with a total area of 72,500 m² (780,000 ft²). Solar One was completed in 1981 and was operational from 1982 to 1986. Later redesigned and renamed Solar Two, it can be seen from Interstate 40 where it covers a 29 hectare (72 acre) site. During times of high winds, blowing dust is sometimes illuminated by the reflected sunbeams to create an unusual atmospheric phenomenon. These beams of light were depicted in several scenes, and a painting, in the movie Bagdad Cafe, which was filmed nearby.

Nevada Solar One shares a similar name to Solar One, however it is quite different. It uses a solar thermal parabolic trough system and, when completed in 2007, will generate 64 MW.

Solar Two

A photo of one of Solar Two's heliostats taken in 2003. The solar power tower can be seen in the background.

In 1995 Solar One was converted into Solar Two, by adding a second ring of 108 larger 95 m² (1,000 ft²) heliostats around the existing Solar One, totaling 1926 heliostats with a total area of 82,750 m² (891,000 ft²). This gave Solar Two the capability of redirecting the equivalent of 600 suns and the ability to produce 10 megawatts. Solar Two used molten salt, a combination of 60% sodium nitrate and 40% potassium nitrate, as an energy storage medium instead of water or oil. This helped in energy storage during brief interruptions in sunlight due to clouds. The molten salt also allowed the energy to be stored in large tanks for future use such as night time. Solar Two was decommissioned in 1999, and was converted by the University of California, Davis, into an Air Cherenkov Telescope in 2001, measuring gamma rays hitting the atmosphere.

"We're proud of Solar Two's success as it marks a significant milestone in the development of large-scale solar energy projects," said then U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.
"This technology has been successfully demonstrated and is ready for commercialization. From 1994 to 1999, the Solar Two project demonstrated the ability of solar molten salt technology to provide long-term, cost effective thermal energy storage for electricity generation.", Boeing

Solar Tres

Main article: Solar Tres Power Tower

Due to the success of Solar Two, a commercial power plant, called Solar Tres Power Tower, is being built in Spain using Solar One and Solar Two's technology for commercial electrical production of 15 MW[1]. Solar Tres will be three times larger than Solar Two with 2,493 heliostats, each with a reflective surface of 96 m². The total reflective area will be 240,000 m² (2.6 million ft²). They will be made of a highly reflective glass with metal back to cut costs by about 45%. A larger storage tank will be used giving the plant the ability to store 600 MWh, allowing the plant to run continuously during the summer.

Land use issues

Solar thermal power plants are big and seem to use a lot of land, but when looking at electricity output versus total size, they use less land than hydroelectric dams (including the size of the lake behind the dam) or coal plants (including the amount of land required for mining and excavation of the coal). While all power plants require land and have an environmental impact, the best locations for solar power plants are on land such as deserts, for which there might be few other uses.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ BBC News Power station harnesses Sun's rays
  2. ^ Ten facts about solar thermal power
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