Engineers Are Building The World’s Largest Single-Tower Solar Thermal Plant
The government of South Australia has announced plans to construct the world's largest single-tower solar thermal power plant in Port Augusta. California-based solar tech company Solar Reserve will be responsible for both the build and upkeep of the facility.
The Aurora Solar Energy Project is based on plans that were developed as part of the Rice Solar Energy Project in California, which stalled as a result of changes to tax credits related to renewable energy.
Once built, arrays of heliostats will focus solar energy onto a central tower, which uses molten salt technology to store that energy as heat. These molten salts will provide 1,100 megawatts of energy storage capacity, which equates to eight hours of full-load storage. This will allow the facility to generate electricity during the night as well as during the day when sunlight is shining down.
Aurora is projected to have an output of 150 megawatts and the ability to generate 495-gigawatt hours of electricity each year. The station will be able to service 90,000 homes and is expected to be able to cater to around five percent of South Australia's total energy needs. Construction on the $650 million plant will begin next year, with the expectation that Aurora will be producing electricity by 2020.
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The Aurora Solar Energy Project won't be the first major renewable energy project for South Australia. In July, the local government inked a deal with Tesla to install a Powerpack system that will work alongside the Hornsdale Wind Farm.
Click to View the Full InfographicTesla CEO Elon Musk has been very clear about the potential for solar to help the U.S. Meet its own energy needs, asserting that the entire nation could be powered by an area measuring 25,600 square kilometers (10,000 square miles) filled with solar panels.
Despite these claims and the assertions of other experts, however, U.S. President Donald Trump appears determined to try to revive the coal industry.
That hasn't slowed the adoption of renewable energy in other parts of the world, though. Morocco is currently building the world's largest traditional solar plant, China's massive floating solar power plant just went online, and India's record-holding solar farm can power 150,000 homes.
Despite a lack of federal support, individual states and cities within the U.S. Are committing to fossil fuel alternatives as well — just this month, Orlando, Florida, became the fortieth city in the country to make a commitment to completely transition to renewables within the next several decades.
A primary contributor to this increased adoption is cost. For a long time, the main argument against renewable energy sources has been their high cost when compared to fossil fuels.
Now, the solar panels that we've become accustomed to seeing atop residential homes have dropped in price significantly. Building a new commercial solar plant is also cheaper than building a plant powered by fossil fuels. Experts are predicting that solar energy will actually be cheaper than coal within the next four years.
This increased affordability will no doubt lead to the creation of more projects like the one in Port Augusta, and that will go a long way toward helping the world meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and stem the damage we've done to the planet through the use of fossil fuels.
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- Xcel Gets OK To Build Minnesota's Largest Solar Plant In Becker
Minnesota utility regulators Thursday approved Xcel Energy's plans for a mammoth solar power plant in Becker. This project will cost at least $575 million and dwarf the state's current largest solar farm.
Utility regulators lauded the new solar farm for its environmental benefits and its economic impact. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) voted unanimously to allow Minneapolis-based Xcel to recover costs for the project from its ratepayers.
"I think this is a hugely important day for Minnesota," Katie Sieben, the PUC's chairman, said at the panel's meeting on Thursday.
The project is roundly supported by clean energy groups, local governments, and labor unions. It will help replace electricity — and property taxes — that will be lost when Xcel begins closing its three big Sherco coal-fired power plants in Becker between the end of 2023 and 2030.
Xcel estimates the project will create 900 union construction jobs.
"We are ready to begin work on the project," Matt Harris, Xcel's lead assistant counsel, told the PUC. "We will begin placing orders for the panels tomorrow."
Sherco Solar will come online in two phases, in late 2024 and late 2025, and will employ 14 people, the utility said.
Sherco Solar will cover 3,497 acres in the Becker area and churn out 460 megawatts of electricity when the sun is shining, Xcel said. Currently, the largest single solar farm in Minnesota is Xcel's 100-megawatt facility in Chisago County.
Xcel said Sherco Solar will be the largest solar plant in the Upper Midwest and one of the largest in the country, significantly boosting Minnesota's solar power capacity, which stood at 1,357 megawatts at the end of 2021. Solar currently provides about 3% of Minnesota's electricity.
Sherco Solar, Xcel said, will effectively avoid releasing up to 300,000 tons of carbon emissions annually. The project has been designed to have minimal impacts on prime farmland — a concern with solar projects.
But the project's cost has been controversial, with both the Minnesota Department of Commerce and the Attorney General's Office opposing it earlier this year. Both concluded Xcel's bidding process left ratepayers unduly exposed to high costs.
This summer, the Commerce Department and Xcel agreed on a "price cap" for the solar plant, which the AG's office also approved.
The complicated price cap is linked to the cost of bids Xcel is currently receiving for several other solar farms beyond Sherco Solar.
Xcel has not released current estimates for the cost but said it will be more than the original $575 million estimate.
Inflation and supply chain constraints squeezed the solar energy business — like many other industries — during the past year. Since April 2021, solar project prices have climbed 25%, including 8% in 2022's second quarter alone, Xcel said in a July PUC filing.
However, Xcel on Thursday reiterated that the passage of landmark federal legislation in August — which includes beefed-up renewable energy tax subsidies — could end up reducing the project's ultimate cost to ratepayers by 20 to 30%.
"The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act has taken some of the pressure off," said Allen Gleckner, lead director for clean electricity at Fresh Energy, a St. Paul-based renewables advocacy group.
Before the law was passed, Xcel estimated ratepayers would pay for Sherco's solar over several years, with the highest cost coming between 2026 to 2031 — roughly $5.60 to $7.90 annually for the average residential customer.
Xcel has kept the project's revised cost a "trade secret," successfully making the case that revealing it would result in higher costs for solar projects currently out for bid. The Star Tribune this week formally challenged Xcel's designation of the cost as a trade secret; the PUC denied the challenge.
The PUC told Xcel on Thursday that it had to disclose the project's total cost by mid-October.
Closed Louisiana Coal Power Plant Site To Be Turned Into Solar Farm
A Louisiana utility and a New York-based renewable energy company say a big solar farm will be built near a coal-fired Louisiana plant that closed last year.
Cleco Power and D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments LLC have a long-term agreement under which Shaw Renewable will build a 240-megawatt solar installation and Cleco will buy power from it, according to a news release.
Cleco said in federal filings that if the Louisiana Public Service Commission approves the Dolet Hills Solar Project, it hopes the $250 million solar farm will provide power by 2025, The Advocate reported.
It will use the power plant’s grid connection, a Cleco spokesperson said.
"This solar project is another step forward in Cleco’s journey to becoming Louisiana’s leading clean energy company," Bill Fontenot, president, and CEO of Cleco Corporate Holdings in Pineville said in the news release. "This project continues our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint while affordably and reliably serving our customers."
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About 55% of Cleco’s power in 2021 came from natural gas and less than 2% from renewable sources, according to the newspaper.
In April, the company said $9 million in federal money will cover three-quarters of the cost of an engineering design study for a proposed $900 million carbon capture and storage project.
The solar project will create enough power for about 45,000 homes, the news release said.
Cleco Power and D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments LLC are building a solar farm in Louisiana.
Shaw now has nearly 700 megawatts in construction and contracted clean power projects in Louisiana, the statement said.
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In February, Shaw announced an agreement with Southwestern Electric Power Co. To buy power from a 72.5-megawatt Caddo Parish solar farm expected to come online in late 2024.
The 650-megawatt lignite plant in Mansfield was one of Louisiana's last coal plants, The Advocate reported last year. It was built in 1986, powered by coal from a nearby mine, and was jointly owned by Pineville-based Cleco Power and SWEPCO.
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Cleco Power serves 291,000 customers in 24 parishes. It owns nine power plants able to put out 3,035 megawatts, 1,335 miles of transmission lines, and 12,152 miles of distribution lines.