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Nevada Solar One
Concentrated solar power station

Nevada Solar One is a concentrated solar power plant, with a nominal capacity of 64 MW and maximum steam turbine power output up to 72 MW net (75 MW gross), spread over an area of 400 acres (160 ha). The projected CO2 emissions avoided are equivalent to taking approximately 20,000 cars off the road. The project required an investment of $266 million USD, and the project officially went into operation in June 2007. Electricity production is estimated to be 134 GWh (gigawatt hours) per year.

In 2007, when the plant came on line, it was the second solar thermal energy (STE) power plant built in the United States in more than 16 years, and in 2007, the largest STE plant built in the world since 1991. It is located in Eldorado Valley in the southwest fringe of Boulder City, Nevada, and was built in that city's Energy Resource Zone, which requires renewable generation as part of plant development permits; Nevada Solar One was approved as part of Duke Energy's larger El Dorado Energy project, which built 1 GW of electrical generation capacity. The solar trough generation was built by Acciona Solar Power, a partially owned subsidiary of Spanish conglomerate Acciona Energy. Lauren Engineers & Constructors (Abilene, TX) was the EPC contractor for the project. Acciona purchased a 55 percent stake in Solargenix (formerly Duke Solar), and Acciona owns 95 percent of the project. Nevada Solar One is unrelated to the Solar One power plant in California.

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History

In 2006, located 30 miles (48 km) north of Tucson, Arizona Public Service's Saguaro Solar Facility opened, with 1 MW of electrical generation capacity.9 Nevada Solar One went online for commercial use on June 27, 2007. It uses similar technology and was constructed over a period of 16 months. The total project site is approximately 400 acres (1.6 km2; 0.63 sq mi), while the solar collectors cover 300 acres (1.2 km2).

Technology

Nevada Solar One uses proprietary technology to track the sun's location and concentrate its rays during peak demand hours. The plant uses 760 parabolic trough concentrators with more than 182,000 mirrors that concentrate the sun's rays onto more than 18,240 solar receivers placed at the focal axis of the troughs. These contain a heat transfer fluid that heats up to 735 °F (391 °C) and is used to produce steam that drives a Siemens SST-70010 steam turbine, adapted to the specific requirements of the CSP technology,11 which is connected to a generator to produce electricity.

The mirrors are manufactured by Flabeg AG in Germany.12 In contrast to the power tower concentrator concept that California's original Solar One project uses. The specially coated tubes, made of glass and steel, were designed and produced by Solel Solar Systems13 as well as by Schott Glass in Germany.14 Motion control was supplied by Parker Hannifin, from components by Ansco Machine Company.

Solar thermal power plants designed for solar-only generation are well matched to summer noon peak loads[dubious – discuss] in areas with significant cooling demands, such as the southwestern United States. Using thermal energy storage systems, solar thermal operating periods can be extended to meet base load needs.15 Given Nevada's land and sun resources, the state has the theoretical ability to have more than 600 GW of electrical generation capacity using solar thermal concentrators like those used by Nevada Solar One.16 It has been proposed that massive expansion of solar plants such as Nevada Solar One has the potential to provide sufficient electricity to power the entire United States.17

Parabolic concentrator facilities have been successfully operating in California's Mojave Desert commercially since 1984, with a combined generating capacity of 354MW from the Solar Energy Generating Systems.[as of?]

Production

Nevada Solar One's production is as follows (values in GW·h).18

YearSolarFossilTotal
200741.210.3841.59
2008122.690.91123.31
2009120.652.43123.07
2010133.001.16134.16
2011128.261.99130.26
2012128.941.39130.33
2013112.792.31115.10
2014116.232.58118.80
2015105.652.14107.79
2016116.892.24119.13
2017118.032.58120.60
2018110.382.57112.95

Fossil backup, night time preservation, and morning pre-heating, is provided by natural gas and provides up to 2% of total output.

Solar generation (MW·h) of Nevada Solar One 19
YearJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecTotal
20071,8768,82710,25110,1866,0753,10189641,212
20081,9424,83711,69614,75914,86819,30813,93512,98712,7859,1414,2072,222122,687
20092,2393,97111,98213,92016,09611,63813,83916,11713,3148,7545,8382,940120,648
20102,1474,14310,34913,26118,85020,67414,86317,98916,2207,1865,4761,842133,000
20113,1376,3708,77214,62516,51620,69813,69816,73210,7529,4204,3333,210128,263
20122,7405,8149,71913,15219,73321,71014,14012,15912,7989,6795,0032,288128,935
20132,6417,02310,35514,61317,06318,40210,55210,1665,1499,3824,1423,302112,790
20143,3364,97610,12012,32115,50119,69812,01111,98712,0078,1454,6091,516116,227
20152,0516,3759,99313,9829,99315,33712,56511,3089,2216,6845,6242,519105,652
20161,6937,7978,4038,54716,62817,83517,66912,51712,2746,7154,9241,885116,887
20172,5603,87610,68313,30516,75319,67210,77013,11110,2369,8393,9083,312118,025
20182842,9477,99613,49215,67719,51712,64511,29612,6367,3104,4742,105110,379
20192,0414,1859,03510,89812,16816,32115,33515,31710,3169,7363,5831,306110,241
20202,1056,1216,3488,28415,58115,38817,36712,7179,6348,0403,8411,940107,366
20218825,5658,05613,26116,03812,1738,57111,9188,6015,4663,7611,41795,709
20222,2775,0857,71711,90915,30312,20410,4306,7348,7827,3232,7911,20191,756
20231,7063,1054,94211,59712,82312,97313,9719,4858,1497,4743,3191,75991,303
Total (2007–2023)1,851,080

Nevada Solar One served as inspiration for the HELIOS One solar power plant's geographic location in the 2010 videogame Fallout: New Vegas.20

See also

  • United States portal
  • Renewable energy portal

References

  1. Solar Steam at Nevada Solar One http://solarpaces2008.sandia.gov/SolarPACES%20PLENARIES/2%20WEDNESDAY%20INDUSTRY%20DAY%20SESSIONS/1%20PLEN%20CSP%20PLANTS%20TODAY/01%20Acciona%20Cohen%20SOLARPACES%202008.pdf ↩

  2. ACCIONA’s Nevada Solar One http://www.acciona.us/Business-Divisions/Energy/Nevada-Solar-One ↩

  3. Technology News Daily. Nevada Solar One Archived 2007-07-07 at the Wayback Machine. http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/7150 ↩

  4. "Utility-Scale Solar Plant Goes Online in Nevada". June 4, 2007. Retrieved February 9, 2020. http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2007/2007-06-05-09.asp#anchor2 ↩

  5. "Arizona Utility to Buy Power from a 280-Megawatt Solar Power Plant". energyvortex.com. Archived from the original on June 16, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20080616040624/http://www.energyvortex.com/pages/headlinedetails.cfm?id=3402 ↩

  6. "Acciona Energía website". Retrieved 2008-06-17. http://www.acciona-energy.com ↩

  7. "Nevada's Largest Solar Power Plant Opens". Southwest Contractor. June 2007. Retrieved 2009-08-01. http://southwest.construction.com/features/archive/0706_feature4.asp ↩

  8. "ACCIONA invests 220 million euros in a solar thermal electric power plant in Nevada (USA)" (in Spanish). 2006-02-13. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2006-10-23. https://web.archive.org/web/20070928231159/http://www.acciona.es/default.asp?x=0002060101&z=000105&item=152&bus=1 ↩

  9. Kryzanowski, Tony (2007). "Raising Arizona's renewable power". www.altenerg.com. enerG Magazine. Archived from the original on 31 March 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2019. https://www.altenerg.com/back_issues/index.php-content_id=51.htm ↩

  10. "Siemens website - steam turbines for CSP plants". Archived from the original on 2010-09-18. Retrieved 2010-07-01. https://web.archive.org/web/20100918122539/http://www.energy.siemens.com/hq/en/power-generation/renewables/solar-power/concentrated-solar-power/steam-turbine.htm ↩

  11. "Sun shines on solar power steam turbine generators". EngineerLive. Retrieved 2010-07-01. http://www.engineerlive.com/Design-Engineer/Engines_Turbines/Sun_shines_on_solar_power_steam_turbine_generators/20007/ ↩

  12. Flabeg AG - solar power mirror installations http://www.flabeg.com/en/02_05_trackrecord.html ↩

  13. "Solel website". Retrieved 2008-06-17. http://www.solel.com ↩

  14. Schott AG - special glass tubing http://www.schott.com/english/news/press.html?NID=2037 ↩

  15. Spain Pioneers Grid-Connected Solar-Tower Thermal Power Archived 2018-09-27 at the Wayback Machine p. 3. http://www.iea.org/impagr/cip/pdf/issue36SolarP.pdf ↩

  16. Nevada Solar One Goes Online Archived 2007-05-23 at the Wayback Machine http://www.solartoday.org/2007/mar_apr07/nevada_solar_one.htm ↩

  17. Sunny Outlook: Can Sunshine Provide All U.S. Electricity? http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=sunny-outlook-sunshine-provide-electricity ↩

  18. Energy Information Administration. "Nevada Solar One, Annual". Electricity Data Browser. Archived from the original on October 9, 2013. Retrieved June 28, 2015. /wiki/Energy_Information_Administration ↩

  19. "Nevada Solar One, Monthly". Electricity Data Browser. Energy Information Administration. Retrieved March 8, 2017. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/browser/#/plant/56405/?pin=ELEC.PLANT.GEN.56405-SUN-ALL.M&linechart=ELEC.PLANT.GEN.56405-SUN-ALL.M ↩

  20. "HELIOS One and El Dorado Dry Lake". The Lucky Thirty Kate. https://theluckythirtykate.com/portfolio/helios-one-and-el-dorado-substation-fallout-new-vegas/ ↩