January 2, 2015 at 12:55The Ivanpa project: or how giants invest in renewable energy
In recent years, so-called renewable energy sources (RES) have been increasingly used. Such methods are not new to humanity. We all know about such alternative energy sources as wind, solar energy, tides and so on. And if once they talked about renewable energy as something new and unusual, now more and more large companies are investing in such methods of generating energy.
Undoubtedly, the greatest advantage of such energy is its inexhaustibility, hence the concept of “renewable”. This allows large companies to save millions of dollars. Also, many experts refer to the environmental friendliness of such projects, but is it so far, it is still not completely clear.
So, let’s say, Apple has a solar power station with an area of 400 thousand square meters. m. And Google has placed thousands of windmills in Iowa to use wind power to operate its data center. In addition to the above companies, there are dozens of other giants that practice renewable energy, among them: Microsoft, Duke Energy, Intel, Ikea, FedEx ...
But let's not beat around the bush. Today we’ll talk about the largest solar power plant, the legendary project “Ivanpa”. The station is located near the famous Las Vegas in the Mojave Desert, a place where the sun is able to provide huge energy production. In theory, the "solar farm", whose full name is "Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System", is able to provide electricity to a large city.
The facility has an area of 14 square kilometers and includes 173 thousand heliostats and three power units in the form of towers 137 meters high. The station is capable of producing a whopping 392 MW of solar energy. In comparison, the station in Abu Dhabi with a capacity of 100 MW was in second place before. According to many experts, “Ivanpa” is a real breakthrough in the world of solar energy. $ 2 billion was spent on the construction of the station. Construction lasted more than three years with the efforts of 2700 specialists. The project officially went into operation in February 2014.
The history of the “Ivanpa” project dates back to 2004. Initially, the idea positioned itself as a startup of the famous BrightSource Energy company. To implement the project, the company began to look for investors and they were soon found. Among them were DBL, Morgan Stanley, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, BP and others. In total, investors allocated $ 100 million. Later, Google joined the number of investors, he allocated no less than $ 168 million for the project. But, of course, it was not enough of these funds to implement such a large-scale project, and BrightSource Energy decides to ask the US state for help. As a result, the US federal government, on the pretext of helping to develop innovative projects, invested $ 1.6 billion in loan funds.
There were many obstacles to the implementation of “Ivanpa”, such as the economic crisis and the decline in eco-energy demand, but all this did not prevent BrightSource from reaching its goal. So, in 2010 the construction of the “solar station” began. And now, when the project is completely finished, we can observe a real work of art.
Despite the apparent complexity, the principle of operation of a solar farm is quite simple. As already mentioned above, the station consists of 173 thousand heliostats. A heliostat is a device that, regardless of the daily movement of the sun, is able to rotate a mirror that directs the sun's rays in one direction. Each heliostat consists of a pair of mirrors and a control mechanism.
In the center of each of the three fields of heliostats is a tower-power plant. Mirrors focus sunlight on boilers located on the tops of towers. From heating the boilers to 538 ° C, steam is generated that enters the turbine with an electric generator.
When boilers overheat, its surface becomes white, reflecting excess energy. At the bottom of the tower is a cooling system. Each tower also has a control room with a graphical control system for all elements of the station.
Given that the majority, citing the benefits of solar energy, primarily refer to its environmental friendliness, most likely they do not know the whole truth. First, most environmentalists are concerned about the damage to nature in the construction area. Secondly, thousands of birds die, among which there are rare species, due to concentrated sunlight.
Despite everything, the “Ivanpa” project cannot be called ideal, and there are a sufficient number of reasons for this. The project took a long time and was very financially expensive. But the most ironic is that the technology of the solar station, according to many experts, has become outdated. This is due primarily to the presence of wired control lines of the station. For example, in many European solar stations for several years GSM-signals have been used for communication. Plus, the station does not use accumulated energy storage, which is now a more efficient method. But, nevertheless, "Ivanpa" is currently the largest and most powerful solar station in the world.
According to forecasts, by 2020 the share of solar energy in the world market will be more than 10%, which, of course, proves the potential of renewable energy sources.
Undoubtedly, the greatest advantage of such energy is its inexhaustibility, hence the concept of “renewable”. This allows large companies to save millions of dollars. Also, many experts refer to the environmental friendliness of such projects, but is it so far, it is still not completely clear.
So, let’s say, Apple has a solar power station with an area of 400 thousand square meters. m. And Google has placed thousands of windmills in Iowa to use wind power to operate its data center. In addition to the above companies, there are dozens of other giants that practice renewable energy, among them: Microsoft, Duke Energy, Intel, Ikea, FedEx ...
But let's not beat around the bush. Today we’ll talk about the largest solar power plant, the legendary project “Ivanpa”. The station is located near the famous Las Vegas in the Mojave Desert, a place where the sun is able to provide huge energy production. In theory, the "solar farm", whose full name is "Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System", is able to provide electricity to a large city.
The facility has an area of 14 square kilometers and includes 173 thousand heliostats and three power units in the form of towers 137 meters high. The station is capable of producing a whopping 392 MW of solar energy. In comparison, the station in Abu Dhabi with a capacity of 100 MW was in second place before. According to many experts, “Ivanpa” is a real breakthrough in the world of solar energy. $ 2 billion was spent on the construction of the station. Construction lasted more than three years with the efforts of 2700 specialists. The project officially went into operation in February 2014.
How it all started
The history of the “Ivanpa” project dates back to 2004. Initially, the idea positioned itself as a startup of the famous BrightSource Energy company. To implement the project, the company began to look for investors and they were soon found. Among them were DBL, Morgan Stanley, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, BP and others. In total, investors allocated $ 100 million. Later, Google joined the number of investors, he allocated no less than $ 168 million for the project. But, of course, it was not enough of these funds to implement such a large-scale project, and BrightSource Energy decides to ask the US state for help. As a result, the US federal government, on the pretext of helping to develop innovative projects, invested $ 1.6 billion in loan funds.
There were many obstacles to the implementation of “Ivanpa”, such as the economic crisis and the decline in eco-energy demand, but all this did not prevent BrightSource from reaching its goal. So, in 2010 the construction of the “solar station” began. And now, when the project is completely finished, we can observe a real work of art.
How does she work
Despite the apparent complexity, the principle of operation of a solar farm is quite simple. As already mentioned above, the station consists of 173 thousand heliostats. A heliostat is a device that, regardless of the daily movement of the sun, is able to rotate a mirror that directs the sun's rays in one direction. Each heliostat consists of a pair of mirrors and a control mechanism.
In the center of each of the three fields of heliostats is a tower-power plant. Mirrors focus sunlight on boilers located on the tops of towers. From heating the boilers to 538 ° C, steam is generated that enters the turbine with an electric generator.
When boilers overheat, its surface becomes white, reflecting excess energy. At the bottom of the tower is a cooling system. Each tower also has a control room with a graphical control system for all elements of the station.
Ecological station turned out to be not entirely ecological
Given that the majority, citing the benefits of solar energy, primarily refer to its environmental friendliness, most likely they do not know the whole truth. First, most environmentalists are concerned about the damage to nature in the construction area. Secondly, thousands of birds die, among which there are rare species, due to concentrated sunlight.
The future of the plant and solar energy in general
Despite everything, the “Ivanpa” project cannot be called ideal, and there are a sufficient number of reasons for this. The project took a long time and was very financially expensive. But the most ironic is that the technology of the solar station, according to many experts, has become outdated. This is due primarily to the presence of wired control lines of the station. For example, in many European solar stations for several years GSM-signals have been used for communication. Plus, the station does not use accumulated energy storage, which is now a more efficient method. But, nevertheless, "Ivanpa" is currently the largest and most powerful solar station in the world.
According to forecasts, by 2020 the share of solar energy in the world market will be more than 10%, which, of course, proves the potential of renewable energy sources.