Utility-Scale Solar Plant Goes Online in Nevada
BOULDER CITY, Nevada (ENS) - Nevada Solar One, the first concentrating solar power plant in Nevada went on line on Saturday.
Covering 250 acres of desert in the El Dorado Valley near Boulder City, this 64 megawatt concentrating solar plant is the first modern utility-scale solar electric power plant in the United States.
It is the largest solar electric power plant to be built globally in the past 14 years and the third largest solar power plant in the world.
The solar plant is 98 percent concentrated solar and two percent natural gas.
The project developer is SolarGenix Energy, formerly Duke Solar, based in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Nevada Solar One uses trough-shaped mirrors to focus the sun's energy onto receiver tubes that carry oil. The hot oil will be used to boil water into steam, which will drive a turbine and generator to produce power.
According to Schott, which is providing 19,300 receiver tubes for the plant, its new efficient receiver tube design will heat the oil to more than 750 degrees Fahrenheit.
Acciona Energia, a Spanish renewable energy company, is investing US$262 million in the plant.
More solar thermal plants could be coming to Nevada. In February 2006, International Automated Systems, Inc. signed a $150 million contract on to install a 100 megawatt power plant for Solar Renewable Energy-1 LLC of Nevada.
The company has developed an innovative technology based on thin acrylic Fresnel lenses that focus sunlight onto receiver tubes, and it intends to combine that technology with a bladeless turbine driven by steam passing through rocket nozzles.
Customer comments
No comments were found for Utility-Scale Solar Plant Goes Online in Nevada. Be the first to comment!