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Construction Slated to Starton Major Solar Power Plant

Posted on: Monday, 6 March 2006, 15:00 CST

By John G. Edwards

By JOHN G. EDWARDS

REVIEW-JOURNAL

An energy company is scheduled to break ground today on the first big U.S. solar thermal power plant in 15 years, and analysts expect that similar plants soon will be built around the Southwest and Mediterranean.

Solargenix Energy, a company controlled by Spanish-company Accion, is starting construction on Nevada Solar One, a 64- megawatt, solar thermal plant in the Eldorado Valley of Boulder City.

The $106 million solar project is scheduled for completion by March 2007. It will cover about 320 acres of desert land in the Eldorado Valley and will be visible to motorists on nearby U.S. Highway 95.

The plant will use troughs of mirrors to concentrate heat from the sun and raise the temperature of a special fluid to 750 degrees. The fluid then will transfer the heat to a steam generator that will produce electricity.

Nevada Solar One will sell the electricity to Nevada Power Co., which will use the renewable power to satisfy the state's renewable- energy law, which requires it to get a portion of its power from solar energy.

The Eldorado Valley plant will be the first major U.S. solar thermal power plant since one was completed in Cramer Junction, Calif., about 15 years ago.

Solargenix and Schott, the German manufacturer that made components for the Nevada project, believe many more solar thermal plants will follow. They say development of solar thermal projects stopped once power became cheap again after the energy crisis of the 1970s.

"The technology basically went to sleep if you will," said Christoph Fark, a sales and marketing manager at Schott.

Energy is no longer cheap. Natural gas prices in particular have been driving costs higher for power plants that burn gas. Coal is a cheap fuel for power generation, but it creates pollution.

"The (solar thermal) technology is proven," however, said Jeff Myles, a spokesman for Solargenix. "This (California) plant has operated ever since."

As a result, Solargenix expects to negotiate deals to develop solar thermal projects in Nevada, California, Arizona and New Mexico, which are prime locations for solar thermal projects.

"You have perfect conditions here. You have very high solar yields," Fark said.

Fark said his company is already negotiating to supply components for projects in Spain, Morocco, Algeria and Egypt.

"In about 10 years, we'll all be looking back and looking at the trend of these things being built," Lynch said.

He said Nevada Power One will generate electricity for about 12 cents a kilowatt hour, compared to 5 to 8 cents for coal-fired power plants.

However, coal-fired power plants emit massive quantities of carbon dioxide and small quantities of other air pollutants.

Solar thermal plants do require water, but Myles said he did not have information about how much water Nevada Solar One would consume.

Earlier this week, Powered by Renewables and SunEdison said they are developing an 18-megawatt solar plant that will sell electricity to the military. SunEdison Chief Executive Officer Jigar Shah said the flurry of renewable-energy projects may attract renewable energy manufacturing plants to Nevada.

Schott likes to build manufacturing plants close to its customers but the company has not announced plans for a manufacturing plant in Nevada.

Source: Las Vegas Review - Journal

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