Spanish Solar company Abengoa’s Solana plant in the desert near Gila Bend, Arizona has passed commercial testing, and it can store the sun’s power for six hours via thermal energy.
The three -square-mile facility near Gila Bend uses concentrated solar power (CSP) technology to collect the sun’s heat. Thermal energy storage is Solana’s distinctive feature. At 280 megawatts, Solana is one of the largest plants using parabolic mirrors. Its 2,700 parabolic trough mirrors follow the sun to focus heat on a pipe containing a heat transfer fluid, which is a synthetic oil. The heat transfer fluid flows to steam boilers, where it heats water to create steam. The steam drives 140-megawatt turbines to produce electricity.
Arizona Public Service (APS) has contracted to purchase 100% of the power output generated from Solana, to meet the Arizona Corporation Commission’s (ACC) mandate that the state’s regulated utilities provide 15% of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2025.
APS, Arizona’s largest and longest-serving electricity utility, serves more than 1.1 million customers in 11 of the state’s 15 counties. With headquarters in Phoenix, APS is the principal subsidiary of Pinnacle West Capital Corp. (NYSE: PNW).
Don Brandt, APS President and Chief Executive Officer said, he regarded Solana as providing a boost toward the APS goal of making Arizona “the solar capital” of America.
Solana is one of the largest power plants of its kind in the world. Beyond size, what makes Solana special as a solar power plant is the ability to store the heat from the sun for electrical production at night, using substantial thermal storage to keep the juice flowing for hours after sundown.
Solana is a monumental step forward in solar energy production. Solana delivers important value to APS customers by generating power when the sun isn’t shining. It also increases our solar energy portfolio by nearly 50 percent. This provides a huge boost toward our goal to make Arizona the solar capital of America.
“With Solana’s substantial thermal heat storage capacity, we can manage electrical output from the plant much more effectively than from other solar power sources,” said Pat Dinkel, APS Vice President of Resource Management. “With photovoltaic technology, generated electricity needs to be used immediately or it’s lost. Solana’s technology extends the use of solar energy to produce power whenever our customers need it most, including evenings.”
Solana is the Spanish term for “sunny spot”.
