Ucilia Wang: November 16, 2009, 5:05 PM

• 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

Solar Millennium Likes Dry Cooling After All

Solar Millennium said Monday it plans to use dry cooling for its solar thermal power project in Nevada.

The Berkeley-based company announced the switch, which could add to its project's costs but win it some goodwill from lawmakers and environmentalists, after its plan to use as much as 1.3 billion gallons of water per year for its project met strong opposition from residents of Amargosa Valley.

Using air cooling could cut the water use by 90 percent from the original proposal, the company said. Dry cooling techniques are generally more expensive and lead to lower efficiency for the plant. But water is a precious commodity in the deserts of western states, where many solar thermal power plants are under development.

Solar Millennium is proposing to build one or possibly two solar power plants with 242-megawatt of generation capacity each. Each power plant would cost about $1.5 billion to build, the company said.

The developer has signed a memorandum of understanding with Nevada utility NV Energy to build the project. The two haven't disclosed how they would finance the project.

Although solar power plants generate cleaner electricity than coal-fired plants, they are not immune to the strong environmental opposition that zeroes in on these projects' proposed land and water use.

Another solar thermal power plant developer, BrightSource Energy, has opted to use dry cooling for its first, 440-megawatt project in the Mojave Desert of California.

Solar Millennium is also developing projects in the desert of California to sell power to Southern California Edison.