Daniel Englander 02 21 08, 5:56 AM

• 0
• Email
  • Recipient's Email Your Email Send me a copy

  • Thank you!
    Your article has been sent.

  • Error
    There was a problem sending your article.

• Share

Abengoa-A-Go-Go

Abengoa Solar announced this morning plans to build a 280 MW CSP plant in Gila Bend, AZ, about 70 miles southwest of Phoenix. The Spanish company will build, own, and operate the new plant, and has contracted to sell 100 percent of the plant’s electricity to the Arizona Public Service Co. Though deal details weren’t disclosed, this looks to be one big PPA. Abengoa estimates they’ll receive about $4 billion in revenue from the sale of electricity over the next 30 years, after which point the Spanish will have enough money to buy back the Mexican Territory.

Not quite the Alamo

The plant, which is scheduled to come online around 2011, will use about three square miles of solar troughs coupled with molten salt thermal storage to drive two 140 MW steam generators, producing about 900,000 MWh yearly for 70,000 homes. It is billed as “the largest solar-power facility in the world if operational today.” Well, that depends on what your definitions of “largest”, “plant” and “today” are. Our Clintonian grammatical melodrama starts a few hundred miles northwest in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

Kramer Junction, CA is home to a series of nine parabolic trough plants in operation since 1985. The plants, known as the Kramer Junction Solar Electric Generating System, were designed and built by LUZ Industries, though now companies like Solel and Flagsol have gotten in on the fun. All tolled, the nine plants have a generating capacity of around 354 MW, pumping out over 11 billion kWh since 2001. Do nine individual plants count as much as a single plant? Well, yes. SEGS plants sell their power in bulk across generation facilities, so customers like SoCal Edison don’t know which or how many of the plants are providing power on any given day.

5/9ths of SEGS - Not too shabby.

If that wasn’t enough, it seems like Abengoa has played this game before. The company is currently building another of the world’s largest solar power plants. This one, a 300 MW combined CSP, tower, and PV plant, is currently under construction in Sanlucar la Mayer, outside of Seville.  Abengoa is clearly the Ron Jeremy of solar power construction - let’s just hope Congress doesn’t force the Spanish Stallion to keep its pants on.