Solar power heads south

The Arizona Public Service Company (APS) plans to build a 280MW concentrating solar power (CSP) plant 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, near Gila Bend.

The new Solana Generating Station will produce enough energy to serve 70,000 APS customers when operating at full capacity. Built by Abengoa Solar, it is scheduled to start providing renewable energy in 2011. If it was in operation today, the facility would be the largest solar power plant in the world.

Solana will employ technology that can produce and store energy during the day, and then provide that energy for use by APS customers across periods of peak demand. APS will purchase 100 per cent of the plant’s energy output, pending approval from the Arizona Corporation Commission. The value of the produced energy will be about $4bn over 30 years.

Unlike traditional solar-photovoltaic plants, which use direct sunlight to produce electricity, concentrating solar power uses the sun’s heat. Parabolic mirrors track the sun and focus solar energy onto a liquid. Once heated, the liquid is used to convert water into steam, which turns the plant’s turbines to create electricity.