The Solana Generating Station is a

solar power Solar power, also known as solar electricity, is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Solar panels use the photovoltaic effect to c ...

plant near Gila Bend,

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, about southwest of Phoenix. It was completed in 2013. When commissioned, it was the largest

parabolic trough A parabolic trough collector (PTC) is a type of solar thermal collector that is straight in one dimension and curved as a parabola in the other two, lined with a polished metal mirror. The sunlight which enters the mirror parallel to its plane of ...

plant in the world, and the first U.S. solar plant with molten salt thermal energy storage. Built by the Spanish company Abengoa Solar, the project can produce up to 280

megawatts The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named in honor o ...

(MW) gross, supplied by two 140 MW gross (125 MW net) steam turbine generators: enough electricity to meet the needs of approximately 70,000 homes and obviate the emission of roughly 475,000 tons of CO₂ every year. Its name is the

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term for "sunny spot".

Technology

The plant employs a proprietary

concentrating solar power Concentrated solar power (CSP, also known as concentrating solar power, concentrated solar thermal) systems generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight into a receiver. Electricity is generated whe ...

(CSP) trough technology developed by Abengoa, and covers an area of . Construction was expected to create about 1,500 construction jobs with the plant employing 85 full-time workers. Solar thermal plants use substantially more water for cooling than other solar generating technologies. Nevertheless, the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded in 1892, in San Francisco, by preservationist John Muir. A product of the Pro ...

supported the Solana plant, because it was built on private land, and was projected to use "75 to 85 percent less water than the current agricultural use."

Economics

Arizona Public Service (APS) has contracted to purchase 100% of the power output generated from Solana, to meet the

Arizona Corporation Commission The Arizona Corporation Commission is the Public Utilities Commission of the Arizona, State of Arizona, established by Article 15 of the Constitution of Arizona, Arizona Constitution. Arizona is one of only fourteen states with elected commission ...

's (ACC) mandate that the state's regulated utilities provide 15% of their electricity from

renewable energy Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...

sources by 2025. APS will pay about 14 cents per kWh. The Solana plant was originally planned to open in 2011 and was estimated to cost $2 billion. In December 2010, Abengoa received a $1.45 billion

loan guarantee A loan guarantee, in finance, is a promise by one party (the guarantor) to assume the debt obligation of a borrower if that borrower defaults. A guarantee can be limited or unlimited, making the guarantor liable for only a portion or all of the ...

to support construction of the plant.

Energy storage

One of the principal advantages of concentrated solar thermal (CST) is that

thermal energy storage Thermal energy storage (TES) is the storage of thermal energy for later reuse. Employing widely different technologies, it allows surplus thermal energy to be stored for hours, days, or months. Scale both of storage and use vary from small t ...

can be provided efficiently, so that output can be provided after the sun goes down, and output can be scheduled to meet demand requirements. The Solana Generating Station is designed to provide six hours of energy storage. This allows the plant to generate about 38 percent of its rated capacity over the course of a year.

Production

Solana Generating Station's production is as follows, averaging 742 GW·h annual, yielding about 390 MW·h/acre. Maximum annual electricity production was projected at 900,000

MW·h A kilowatt-hour ( unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a non-SI unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules (MJ) in SI units, which is the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour. Kilowatt-hours are a commo ...

(900 GW·h), as calculated using the project's and

NREL The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the US specializes in the research and development of renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy systems integration, and sustainable transportation. NREL is a federally funded research and ...

specific capacity factors. In 2020, Solana Generating Station has averaged 82.4% of the projected production value. Nearby photovoltaic power station Agua Caliente, covering a larger site area of 2400 acres, had a Loan Programs Office projected generation of only 559 GW·h (instead yielding an average real 727 GW·h production).

Operations issues

The plant opened in 2014 and has experienced some problems since its opening. In the summer of 2017, the plant had two transformer fires.

Maricopa County Maricopa County () is a county in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census the population was 4,420,568, or about 62% of the state's total, making it the fourth-most populous county in the United States and ...

environmental officials questioned whether the plant violated air pollution standards, and in 2016, fined the plant $1.5 million for violations of air quality standards. According to the ''Phoenix New Times'', "The plant’s parent company, a subsidiary of Abengoa called Atlantica Yield, downplayed the issues, and a company representative said that better times are likely ahead." According to government documents, the plant is expected to produce 900,000 MWh every year. This amount of electricity could power about 65,000 typical homes in Arizona. However, the plant produced only 600,000 MWh in its first full year of operation, according to information from the Federal Energy Information Administration. In 2015, the output increased to 700,000 MWh. In the summer of 2017, a microburst "knocked out the plant that July." but notwithstanding that, generation reached 723,966 MWh. A CSP thermal power block is like that of a coal or gas-fired plant, except its fuel is sunlight and require up to four years to ramp-up to 100% operating level.

References

External links

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Arizona Utility to Buy Power from a 280-Megawatt Solar Power Plant
* {{Generating stations in Arizona Solar power stations in Arizona Buildings and structures in Maricopa County, Arizona Solar thermal energy