The 500 MW Palen project will contain two adjacent and independent 250 MW units that will be built on public land between the cities of Indio and Blythe in Riverside Country. It will use parabolic trough technology where parabolic mirrors heat a heat-transfer oil which then is used to generate steam for a conventional steam turbine.
Just in time for the ISH 2011 in Frankfurt, SOREL GmbH Mikroelektronik presents its new system controller XHCC for solar thermal, space heating and cooling.
The systems have a total area of 140,000 m2. The new installations raise the total number of installed systems in Switzerland to 85,000 units with a total area of 800,000 m2.
During the United States High Efficiency Revolution Tour, which will be organised by A.O. Smith, the partners will work with educating distributors, wholesalers, contractors, plumbers, specifying engineers, builders and consumers about solar thermal water heating solutions.
The funds of 67 million euros will be provided by a consortium of three large European banks. There have already been other Fresnel solar power stations in the USA, in Spain and in Australia, but in contrast to PE2, all of them have a capacity in the low to medium single-digit MW range and can thus be classified as demonstration projects.
Extending gas-fired power stations using solar thermal technology is not a new idea. There are already three such power stations in North Africa and one in Australia. At these power stations solar collectors provide heat and thus help to save fuel. GE's power station, however, will be the first to use solar tower technology.
The intended location for the Hidden Hills project is in Inyo County in California, near the border to Nevada and about 45 miles west from Las Vegas. According to BrightSource, the Hidden Hills plant will drive down the costs for solar thermal electricity through economy of scale effects.
Here you can find a small selection of comprehensive market overvies from the solar thermal sector:
Market Overview: Vacuum Tube Collectors
Market Overview: Flat Plate Collectors
Market Overview: Solar Stations
Photovoltaic Feed