A Success Story for Solar Power in the United States, Part 1
Robert Menard
Certified Purchasing Professional,
Certified Professional Purchasing Consultant, Certified Green Purchasing Professional, Certified Professional Purchasing Manager
Editor’s Note: This is Part One of a two part series on this specific solar power project in the U.S. Part One deals with the potential for great success. Part Two (link) provides an alternate view of why the accomplishment may be financially risky and not subject to duplication almost everywhere else in the U.S.
The Ivanpah Dry Lake Solar Electric Generating System is bringing the world’s largest solar thermal plant to life. When completed, this single 377-MW solar power plant in California will double the solar generating capacity in the United States by producing 1 million-MW of electric power annually. Considering that less than 1% of electric power in the U.S. is produced via solar means, this plant is a very big success. Electricity generated by the plant is expected to come on in stages beginning in 4Q 2013. Press releases claim that at capacity, Ivanpah will generate enough electricity for 140,000 homes and displace 400,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually.
Bechtel of San Francisco, CA began construction in 2010 for BrightSource Energy, Inc of Oakland, CA on a vast plot of federally owned dessert land located about 50 miles south of Needles, CA and a few miles west of the Nevada border tucked up near Arizona. Power purchase agreements in place show PG&E and Southern California Edison to be customers.
In basic technological terms, and skipping over the tall weeds, the veritable ocean of mirrors focuses collected sunlight onto three 120 foot tall receiver generators. Each generator sits on a 339 foot tower making the total height 459 feet, about 50% higher than the Statue of Liberty. Concentric circles of solar collectors surround each tower. For a very cool video, please click on this virtual tour link.
Investors for this $2.2 billion project include NRG Energy, Inc., a publicly traded NJ firm which has put in $300 million and Google which has invested $168 million. The project, which covers 3,471 acres or 5.5 square miles, enjoys a $1.6 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Dept. of Energy.
Certainly, this project, presuming no financial failure, could be a significant boost to the solar industry. However, it has inherently unique factors that make this project difficult if not impossible to duplicate anywhere else in the U.S. We will discuss these in Part Two.
QUICK FACTS
• According to US Energy Information Administration Electricity consumption totaled nearly 3,856 billion Kilowatthours (kWh) in 2011. U.S. electricity use in 2011, more than 13 times greater than electricity use in 1950
• In 2011, coal was the fuel for about 42% of the 4 trillion killowatthours of electricity generated in the United States
• Natural gas, 2011, was the fuel for 25% of the U.S. electricity
• Petroleum was used to generate less than 1% of all electricity in the United States in 2011
• Nuclear power was used to generate about 19% of all the Country’s electricity in 2011
• Hydropower was the source for 8% of U.S. electricity generation in 2011
• Biomass accounted for about 1% of the electricity generated in the United States.
• Wind power remains a small fraction of U.S. electricity generation, about 3% in 2011
• Geothermal power comes from heat energy buried beneath the surface of the earth. generated less than 1% of the electricity in the Country in 2011
• Solar power is derived from energy from the sun. Both photovoltaic (PV) and solar-thermal electric combined in 2011 for less than 1% of the U.S. electricity