Posts Tagged ‘solar-thermal’

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin

By Marvin Tessneer

NRG Energy Inc. has started construction on its Roadrunner Solar Electric Facility near Santa Teresa, the state’s first solar power plant. The New Jersey-based company is building the Roadrunner Solar Electric Facility on 210 acres of industrial-zoned land about 10 miles north of El Paso. First Solar Inc. will provide engineering, construction and procurement services for the project. The Roadrunner facility will be a 20-megawatt photovoltaic solar project, NRG Energy officials said.

The power will be sold to El Paso Electric Co. under a 20-year power-purchase agreement. At full capacity, the facility is designed to supply the energy demands of about 16,000 families.

“We’re anticipating that NRG will complete the construction this year,” said Rocky Miracle of the Corporative Planning and Development Department at El Paso Electric. “We’re working on the interconnection, and we’re right on schedule. Solar energy generates direct current, but there’ll be a conversion unit at Santa Teresa that’ll feed alternating current into our system.”

NRG Energy expects to have construction completed by fall of this year, said Lori Neuman, director of communications.

“The agreement with NRG demonstrates our desire to add clean, carbon-free energy to our generation portfolio at a reasonable cost for the benefit or our customers, the environment and the communities we serve,” said David Stevens, El Paso Electric CEO. “Electricity generated at the Roadrunner facility will avoid annual emissions of 27,000 tons of carbon when compared to traditional fossil-fueled generation.”

NRG Energy CEO David Crane said the company would like to expand its reach to other parts of New Mexico. “The merits of solar power – zero emissions, sustainable, coincident with peak demand, compliant with state renewable portfolio standards – are clear,” he said. “We hope to further our partnership with the state to bring more of solar power’s many benefits to its residents.”

NRG Energy is installing solar panel arrays that will contain photovoltaic cells to generate direct current electrical power. The panels are manufactured by First Solar, a leading photovoltaic panel manufacturer in the United States, which has been providing solar panels for the NRG Blythe Solar Project in Riverside in southeastern California.

Photovoltaic panels absorb what the industry refers to as photons. “When photons strike the solar cells contained in the panel, they can be reflected, absorbed or pass through the panel. When photons are absorbed, they have the energy to knock electrons loose, which flow in one direction in the panel and exit through connecting wires as solar electricity, ultimately providing power for residential and commercial users,” according to a First Solar report.

Previously, NRG had planned to install a solar-thermal system that used mirrors to reflect and direct sunlight at a steep angle into towers that convert water into steam that turn turbines to generate electric power. But after reviewing the proposal, NRG decided it would take too long to get the solar-thermal system into operation, and it changed to the photovoltaic system, according to NRG officials.

First Solar has provided the photovoltaic panels to the NRG Blythe Solar Project in California. The Blythe plant has the capacity to provide enough energy at peak capacity to serve the needs of 17,000 homes and remove more than 12,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin

By Marvin Tessneer

The NRG Energy Company is planning to use a different power generation system than originally proposed for its Santa Teresa facility. It now plans to use tracking mirrors and photovoltaic panels to convert New Mexico’s ample sunlight into electrical power, a company spokesman reported.

Previously, NRG had planned to use a solar-thermal system that reflected and directed sunlight with mirrors at a steep angle into towers that boiled water for steam-powered turbines to generate electric power.

The company now intends to use solar panel arrays to generate electric power with a photovoltaic system because using a solar-thermal array would take longer, said NRG spokesman David Knox.

“What we have in this system is transforming solar power directly into electrical power,” Knox said. “We’ve been working with El Paso Electric Co. to determine a schedule to bring solar power on line as soon as possible.”

NRG decided to make the change to comply with New Mexico Public Regulations Commission (PRC) time line requirements. NRG also has a purchase agreement with El Paso Electric (EPE) Co.

NRG and EPE had first agreed on a 92-megawatt generation facility, but because the photovoltaic system is a new technology, they agreed to reduce the generation to 20 megawatts, the power company reported.

Construction dates for the photovoltaic plant proposal are pending a review and approval by the PRC, Knox said.

The photovoltaic panels will be set up in arrays. The panels will absorb light photons to turn into electricity.

“When photons strike the solar cells contained in a solar panel, they can be reflected, absorbed or passed through the panel,” according to a First Solar information source. “When photons are absorbed, they have the energy to knock electrons loose, which flow in one direction in the panel and exit through connecting wires as solar electricity, ultimately providing power for residential and commercial users.”

First Solar is the leading photovoltaic panel manufacturer in the United States and has been providing panels for the NRG Blythe Solar Project in Riverside County in southeastern California.

“Power generated by the Blythe Solar Plant can provide enough energy to serve the needs of about 17,000 homes at peak capacity and will replace more than 12,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year from fossil fuel generation,” a First Solar information release states.

NRG is planning to install the photovoltaic arrays on 450 acres near Santa Teresa, 10 miles west of El Paso. But it has not named a solar panel manufacturer for the project, pending PRC approval, Knox said.

When completed, the solar-power system will be connected with an EPE transmission line, avoiding additional construction, the utility company reported.

NRG has been conducting a 21-megawatt solar power research and development project at the commercial Blythe plant since 2009. The solar-generated power has been sold to Southern California Edison under a 20-year purchase agreement.

“This project demonstrates leadership for California in the utility-scale solar market, providing the lowest-cost solar energy available and helping the state meet its renewable portfolio standard,” the company reported.

Article courtesy of The Las Cruces Bulletin

By Marvin Tessneer

Alternative energy companies are conducting research and development projects directed toward a solar-thermal power plant to be located a mile east of the border town of Santa Teresa in Dona Ana County. The eSolar power technology company is designing a 5-megawatt project in Lancaster, California, as a plant research project for NRG Energy.

“It’s a small version of what we’re going to build in Santa Teresa,” said David Knox of NRG Energy. “It’s a process that we go through before starting actual construction. And from that project we are gaining a lot of insight that will support the building and operation of our Santa Teresa project.”

NRG is planning on breaking ground for its solar-thermal power plant later this year. It plans to have the plant operational by 2011. The Dona Ana County Commission has already approved land-use and building permits for the site.Construction is expected to bring about 400 jobs during a 14- to 16-month period and create 20 permanent jobs when the plant is fully operational, NRG officials said. NRG is planning to build its plant on 450 acres using eSolar’s concentrated solar power (CSP) technology and will be the first commercial solar-thermal power plant in New Mexico.

The technology is made up of a field of flat mirrors, called heliostats, that direct and concentrate sunlight to thermal receivers mounted on towers about 180 feet high. The concentrated sunlight heats the water in the thermal receivers to produce steam that turns turbines to generate clean electrical power. The mirrors track the sun with a calibrated system that can follow and gather the sunlight throughout the day and achieves one of the highest power-to-land ratios in the industry.

NRG plans to develop a project that, at peak capacity, will produce 92-milowatts of electricity that could supply power to about 74,000 homes. The plant will be connected to an existing 115-kilovolt El Paso Electric Company transmission line, and the company has a 20-year power purchase agreement.

The plant also would bring a new tax base and economic benefits from purchases of goods and services during construction. NRG also expects the solar-thermal plant to use same amount of water that would be consumed in a residential development.

New Mexico elected officials are pleased with the solar plans. Governor Bill Richardson said of the NRG project, “With 300 days of sun every year, a highly skilled labor force and a friendly business environment, New Mexico is well-positioned to lead the nation in solar energy production. eSolar, NRG and El Paso Electric are helping us make New Mexico’s renewable energy a potential a reality.”

U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman said, “This plant is an excellent example of the kind of projects New Mexico and the rest of the nation need to further diversify America’s energy portfolio. I compliment El Paso Electric, NRG and eSolar for working to create green jobs in New Mexico that will help to responsibly meet our growing demand for electricity.”

The June 11th announcement by El Paso Electric and NRG Energy that a 92-megawatt solar-thermal plant will be built in Santa Teresa,  New Mexico is the latest announced renewable energy project slated for construction in Dona Ana County.   According to articles in the Las Cruces Sun-News and the Las Cruces Bulletin, the plant will be located near the Santa Teresa Port of Entry and Verde Corporate Realty’s industrial parks in Santa Teresa. The plant will use technology developed by eSolar, a California company El Paso Electric picked to develop a solar project for the utility.

The solar project announcement follows an announcement by R-Qubed Energy that it plans to build a $75 million biogas plant between Vado and Berino. The plant will convert cow manure from the local dairies into methane gas. The gas will be sold to PNM. Other by-products from the plant will include fertilizer, compost and recycled effluent water for re-use on farms. The announcement was one of the front-page stories in the June 5 edition of the New Mexico Business Weekly. Sapphire Energy’s $100 million investment in green crude from algae was also covered on the front-page of the edition.