Google-backed project to double solar thermal in US

Solar thermal electricity production in the US is poised for a big boost, now that financing has recently been closed for the world’s largest solar project.

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, set for completion in 2013, will nearly double the amount of solar thermal electricity produced in the US. The plant is being developed in California by BrightSource Energy Inc.

As part of the financing, the company has finalised $1.6 billion in loans guaranteed by the US Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office. NRG Solar is the lead investor in the project, with a commitment of up to $300 million, while Google has also joined as an equity investor, injecting $168 million. It’s Google’s largest clean-energy investment to date.

“With this investment, we’re helping to deploy the first commercial plant of a potentially transformative solar technology able to deliver clean energy at scale,” said Rick Needham, director of Green Business Operations at Google.

Once finished, Ivanpah will be the largest solar power tower project in the world — 392 megawatts — and will produce clean electricity at the highest efficiency of any solar thermal plant. This will be enough to meet the power needs of up to 140,000 California homes, helping the state move toward its target of 33 per cent electricity from renewable source by 2020.

In terms of carbon dioxide emissions reduction, the savings will be equivalent to more than 400,000 tonnes of CO2 annually — which would be like taking more than 70,000 cars off the road.

The plant is also set to create approximately 1,000 union jobs culminating in four million job hours of work at the peak of construction. That’s an important point to consider, as the US government investment put an emphasis on creating jobs in a challenging times for the construction industry. A similar impact could likely be seen with most other renewable energy technologies … in particular, solar photovoltaics, as rising demand due to falling costs will spur further market growth.

Two utility companies have agreed to separate contracts under which they will use electricity generated by Ivanpah. Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) has purchased approximately two-thirds of the power and the remaining one-third will go to Southern California Edison (SCE).

To conserve water in its desert location, the Ivanpah project will use an air-cooling system to convert steam back into water in a closed-loop cycle. This means only 100 acre-feet of water will be used per year, 95 per cent less water than that used by competing solar thermal technologies dependent upon wet-cooling.

While the plant does not use any thermal storage technologies to provide power at night, the peak load demand for the grid in California is during the hottest periods of the day (think air-conditioning units), so it is still economically viable.

Ivanpah is expected to help advance development in solar thermal technologies, as there has been relatively small advancement over the past 20 years, compared to solar photovoltaics and other renewable energy technologies. Such advancement is long overdue, as concentrated solar power (CSP) is much cheaper per kilowatt-hour in desert climates such as those found in California.

It’s an encouraging development that’s much needed as the globe marches toward 2020 and ambitious clean-energy/carbon reduction targets.