How is solar energy developing in Russia and abroad? Ivanpah's largest solar power plant in the world

Last week in California's Mojave Desert, a huge solar power plant, which fascinates with its beauty, officially began operation. The design capacity of the power plant is 400 megawatts, which, according to experts, will be enough for 140,000 homes in California. Let's find out more about her.

Experts emphasize that the new station will significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions: as if 72,000 cars were removed from the roads of California. In such "sunny" states as Arizona, Nevada, California and others, 17 sites have already been allocated for the construction of similar solar power plants.

At the same time, projects are being implemented more slowly than planned, encountering, oddly enough, protests from the "greens". The fact is that although in the long term such stations benefit the environment, in fact, the construction of stations itself pollutes the areas allocated for them, depriving turtles and other representatives of the desert fauna of their usual habitats.

This station is the largest in the world, with an area of 14.24 square kilometers (5.5 square miles). This facility is called Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System. This station belongs to the type of thermal solar power plants.

This station is capable of producing about 30% of all "thermal energy" produced in the United States. The facility has 3 towers 140 meters high, surrounded by 300,000 mirrors the size of a garage door. All of these mirrors focus the sun's rays on a collector located at the top of the tower. In the upper part of the tower there is also a water reservoir, where all the thermal energy collected by the mirrors is directed.

Each tower has its own control center, plus there is a common control center from where the operation of the entire system is controlled. At the same time, according to the company that created the station, there is no storage for molten coolant salt in the system, as in the case of smaller projects such as Crescent Dunes.

It is worth noting that each of the mirrors can change the angle of inclination and the direction of inclination on command from the center. The mirrors are washed once every two weeks. As far as you can understand, a special mirror washing system is used + a special team of washers who clean the mirrors at night. To manage all the mirrors, a proprietary SFINCS (Solar Field Integrated Control System) system was created.

The whole system consists of 22 million individual parts (rivets, bolts, etc. do not count).

The total cost of the project was 2.2 billion US dollars, of which 1.4 is a federal loan.

At the same time, water vapor is generated in the system, directed to the blades of turbines that produce energy, which is quite enough for the needs of 140,000 California households.

True, it was not without problems. For example, focused sunlight burns birds flying over the station. This fact is the reason for the protests of US environmental organizations. But, despite all the protests, the project was completed and put into operation.

Finally, the design still has room to develop. BrightSource Energy engineers are already suggesting the elimination of water boilers and the use of special brine solutions to further increase the efficiency of the system while maintaining its environmental and energy qualities.

The station employs 86 employees. The estimated period of operation is 30 years, during which the station will provide electricity to 140,000 homes from the cities of the district.

In our age, alternative energy sources are becoming increasingly popular. An exemplary city for the introduction of innovative technologies can be called Seville, the financial and cultural capital of southern Spain. The world's first commercial solar power plant is installed here.

The surroundings of Seville, where a solar power plant is installed, resemble a real looking glass. In the center are two giant towers PS10 and PS20, the height of which is comparable to 40-story buildings. Surrounding the PS10 tower are 624 heliostats, huge mirrors that track the sun's rays and redirect them to the top of the towers. There are steam turbines that convert sunlight into electricity. The PS20 tower, which will be in operation before the end of 2013, is even more powerful, surrounded by 1255 mirrors. It is assumed that the operation of the towers will prevent carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere in the amount of 600,000 tons annually for 25 years.

Now the solar power plant provides 60,000 homes, when the project is completed, this figure will grow to 180,000. It is planned that the total capacity of both towers will reach 300 MW. Of course, the prices for such electricity are still higher than for traditional sources. However, over time, the price normalizes due to the increase in production volumes.

Solar energy at night is no longer a fantasy, but a reality. At least in California, where it is planned to receive at least 33% of all energy from wind and solar in 5 years. The state is increasingly increasing the capacity of alternative energy sources with the goal of providing a third of electricity from them as early as 2020. It is not surprising that the world's greatest solar solar thermal power plant appeared here. At present, this station is no longer experimental - it is an ordinary operating power plant.

About 100 solar thermal stations have already been built around the world, and at least 50 more are expected. Some of them are able to provide electricity even at night. Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, a new solar power plant in California, supplies electricity to 140,000 homes. It is located in the Mojave Desert, no more than 3 hours east of Los Angeles. The station was built within 3 years, its cost amounted to 2 billion 200 million dollars. It generates clean energy from the sun. In this case, the combustion of any fuel is not required at all.

Interestingly, instead of the widely used solar panels, the Ivanpah Solar Electric station uses ordinary mirrors.

There are 173,000 such mirror modules, or heliostats, at the station. Each module is a system consisting of two large mirrors (each the size of a garage door).

Mirrors-heliostats reflect the rays of the sun to the tops of high towers, which are located in the center. Heliostats can rotate and due to this, the reflection of the sun's rays on the tops of the towers occurs continuously until the sun goes below the horizon.

At the top of the towers are boilers with a liquid that turns into steam when heated. The principle of their operation is the same as at an ordinary thermal power plant, only the water is heated here not by burning fuel, but by sunlight. The capacity of the Ivanpah Solar Electric station, which is 392 megawatts, is comparable to the capacity of an average Moscow thermal power plant.

Towers are built as high as possible (at least 148 meters), because the higher the tower, the more mirrors can be placed around it. In the middle of the day, boilers can heat up to over 700 degrees. The resulting steam flows down, rotating the turbine and thus generating electricity. This principle of generating electrical energy is called solar thermal.

Such a solar thermal station can operate even after sunset, thanks to the ability to store excess energy. To do this, a part of the heated liquid is pumped into special huge storage facilities, which is released from them after sunset. Thus, the rotation of the turbine continues, such storage at full capacity can ensure the operation of the turbines for 15 hours. Thanks to such thermal storage facilities, some geothermal stations can even operate around the clock. Ivanpah Solar Electric Station does not yet have these storage facilities, but the following video can be seen as an example. This example looks at a solar thermal plant located in Spain, with a detailed explanation of how it works.

During the construction of the station, its creators took care of environmental protection. After all, although the station itself is completely safe, its construction threatened the extinction of rare species of turtles that live in the desert. Therefore, a special program was developed, during which the owner of the station bought a large plot of land near the station, where about 200 unique turtles moved. The costs of relocating the rare inhabitants of the desert cost the company $22 million, including the purchase of land, the salaries of biologists and the actual relocation of turtles.

The transition to alternative energy sources in California can be called an alternative energy revolution without exaggeration. California's GDP is greater than the GDP of many countries in the world community. The value of this indicator is 2.2 trillion dollars, which is more than that of Russia, India, Canada, Italy, Spain or Australia, which are considered quite powerful countries. Therefore, California needs a lot of energy, and 33%, which by 2020 is planned to be received from alternative sources, is a huge amount. Analysts and the media have already announced the open era of alternative energy. And the fact that solar panels in California are already sold in brick-and-mortar stores and are rapidly dropping in price only confirms this statement. According to TIME magazine, at least one American home switches to solar energy from rooftop panels every 3 minutes. And over time, this dynamic only increases. The US government ensures the development of alternative energy in every possible way. Ordinary people are given interest-free loans for solar panels, and large companies are required to buy alternative energy in accordance with prudently issued laws. Thanks to the gradual launch of an increasing number of solar power plants in the United States, the amount of harmful emissions here is gradually decreasing: since 2005 they have already decreased by 17%. Ivanpah Solar is one of the 7 largest solar power plants that have been commissioned in California in recent years. The launch of each such station is equivalent to the disappearance of at least 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. This is comparable to the disappearance of 77,000 polluting vehicles from the roads at once.

In this beautiful video, you can see the views of the solar station against the backdrop of Los Angeles at night, receiving absolutely clean energy from it.

The largest thermal solar power plant in the world February 18th, 2014

Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating Station, the world's largest solar power plant, opened last week in California's Mojave Desert. Its design capacity is about 400 megawatts: this amount of energy will be enough for 140,000 homes in California.

The $2.2 billion project was implemented by the American company NRG Energy with the support of the US Department of Energy. 350 thousand giant mirrors located on a plot of 13 square meters. kilometers, reflect sunlight, heating water and turning it into steam, which in turn spins a turbine that generates electricity.

Let's find out more about her...

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However, the US plans to become the world leader in the use of clean energy. Now it occupies no more than 1% of the total energy market in the country, but by 2020, according to the adopted state program, a third of the total produced energy should be transferred to renewable sources.
This station is the largest in the world, with an area of 14.24 square kilometers (5.5 square miles). This facility is called Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System. This station belongs to the type of thermal solar power plants.

Photo 4.

The whole system consists of 22 million individual parts (rivets, bolts, etc. do not count).

The total cost of the project was 2.2 billion US dollars, of which 1.4 is a federal loan.

At the same time, water vapor is generated in the system, directed to the blades of turbines that produce energy, which is quite enough for the needs of 140,000 California households.

Photo 6.

Finally, the design still has room to develop. BrightSource Energy engineers are already suggesting the elimination of water boilers and the use of special brine solutions to further increase the efficiency of the system while maintaining its environmental and energy qualities.

The station employs 86 employees. The estimated period of operation is 30 years, during which the station will provide electricity to 140,000 homes from the cities of the district.

Photo 7.