New CSP Project Will Dramatically Reduce Land and Water Use

---

Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--California regulators have begun their facilities siting review of a $2.7 billion, 500-megawatt (MW) concentrating solar power (CSP) project that uses significantly less water and land than comparably sized solar generation technologies. The facilities review being undertaken by the California Energy Commission (CEC) (Sacramento, California) is expected to take 12 months or less. If approved, the two-unit Hidden Hills Solar Electric Generating Station, located in Inyo County, California, can break ground by the end of 2012. With a 29-month construction period, the first 250-MW unit could be online in the first quarter of 2015, while the second 250-MW unit could be online in the second quarter of 2015.

Hidden Hills is being developed by BrightSource Energy Incorporated (Oakland, California), which is also developing the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating Plant in California's Mohave Desert. If Hidden Hills moves forward, it is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs during its 29-month construction cycle. The CEC officially began its facilities review October 5.

Pacific Gas & Electric (San Francisco, California), the utility unit of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:OCG) (San Francisco), has signed a long-term power purchase agreement to take electricity generated by Hidden Hills. The project's site is 3,277 acres of privately owned, sparsely vegetated land with access to existing, nearby high-voltage transmission lines. When complete, the two-unit, 500-MW project will produce enough electricity to power 178,000 homes and avoid more than 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per year.

BrightSource said Hidden Hills will use 33% less land than a typical utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) or CSP plant. And because Hidden Hills will be air-cooled, it will use 90% less water than competing water-cooled CSP plants--a significant attribute for a power plant located in California's desert, only 45 miles west of Las Vegas, Nevada.

The 500-MW project will use a total of 170,000 heliostats, elevated mirrors guided by a tracking system mounted on a pylon, to focus the sun's rays on a solar receiver steam generator. The project will also have two 750-foot tall solar power towers.

The project "underscores BrightSource's commitment to developing environmentally responsible projects that deliver cost-effective and reliable clean energy at scale," John Woolard, BrightSource's president and chief executive, said in a statement. "We're thrilled to take this critical step forward and to support PG&E's continued commitment to delivering on our state's clean energy goals."

The Hidden Hills project will use BrightSource's proprietary LPT solar thermal energy system to create high-temperature steam to drive turbine-generators. The developer said its LPT system is a state-of-the-art solar field design, optimization software and a control system that creates high-temperature steam more effectively than competing CSP technologies. The plant design will feature taller towers that allow for greater concentration of heliostats, significantly reducing the amount of land required to produce energy. The 750-foot-tall towers enable the heliostat rows to be placed closer together, with the mirrors at a steeper angle. The desired goal of the technology is to reduce mirror shading and allow more heliostats to be placed per acre, the CEC noted.

BrightSource also said it would locate mirrors on individual poles that are placed directly into the ground, allowing the solar field to be built around the natural contours of the land and avoid areas of sensitive vegetation. This approach also avoids the extensive land grading and concrete pads associated with other solar technology system designs.

Hidden Hills' system will be air-cooled to dramatically reduce water use. The project will employ an air-cooling system to convert the steam back into water in a closed-loop cycle. This will lower the plant's water use to 140 acre-feet per year, less than 10% of the total amount of water used in competing solar thermal technologies with wet-cooling.

"The economic benefits that will be created by the Hidden Hills [solar energy generating systems] are significant, especially in the context of the economic challenges the region continues to face," said Jeremy Aguero, the principal analyst for Applied Analysis, a business advisory services firm that conducted an analysis of the economic and fiscal impacts of the Hidden Hills project.

The CEC is the state agency responsible for reviewing proposed thermal electric power plants that are 50 megawatts and greater in the state. The facility certification process reviews public health and safety, environmental impacts, and engineering aspects of proposed power plants and all related facilities, such as electric transmission lines and natural gas and water pipelines.

View Plant Profile - 3033976
View Project Report - 300043993 300044000

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. IIR's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.