Should we Make Solar Energy Dirty?
Abengoa Solar has announced that they intend to build the first Solar Thermal installation integrated with a Coal Plant owned by Xcel Energy. The demonstration project is intended to increase power plant efficiency while lowering CO2 emissions. This is the first time that solar energy will be used to increase the efficiency and lower the emissions of a coal power plant in the United States.
The question that I have is should we be going down this road at all? By making the process more efficient and therefore able to produce cheaper electricity are we not undermining our efforts to get off of coal based generation all together? The combination of ultra clean solar thermal energy and coal combustion may reduce the overall CO2 released into the atmosphere but does it not pave the way to utilize even more of our coal reserves? We know that we are going to use all of our petroleum reserves , right to the last drop but if we resign ourselves to also using our coal reserves we will never halt the increase of global CO2. I believe that playing with this technology makes a slippery slope even slicker. Here is what the company has to say:
Abengoa Solar has been selected by Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest electric utility company, to build a demonstration parabolic trough concentrating solar power (CSP) plant at its Cameo coal plant near Grand Junction, Colorado. The project is the first to integrate an industrial solar installation into a conventional electrical power plant.
Construction is expected to start within a month and the plant is expected to be operational by the end of the year. The project, awarded to Abengoa Solar by Xcel, is the first project under an Innovative Clean Technology program that has been approved for Xcel Energy by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission.
The goal of the project is to prove that the heat produced by a solar facility can increase the efficiency of a conventional power plant while also lowering carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Successful integration of this technology may enable future large-scale applications of this technology into other power plants.
“We continue to move forward in developing ways to help us reduce our impact on the environment,” said David Wilks, President of Energy Supply for Xcel Energy. “If this demonstration works, we may be able to implement this type of technological advance in other coal-fired power plants to help further reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Colorado and possibly other areas of our service territory.”
This four thermal megawatt solar installation will use state-of-the-art parabolic trough collectors developed by Abengoa Solar.
Ken May, Director of Abengoa Solar IST, emphasized the high potential of large-scale applications of the industrial solar installation technology: “Proper use of the solar thermal energy produced at these facilities can improve plant efficiency while lowering CO2 emissions. The successful integration of solar and coal technologies will encourage more widespread use throughout the utility sector.”
Parabolic Trough Technology for Industrial Solar Installations
Parabolic trough technology can be used for both electricity generation as well as for producing thermal energy for industrial processes. More extensive use of this technology could have a significant positive impact on the environment. Abengoa Solar’s industrial parabolic trough technology installation utilizes collectors that track the sun during the daytime in order to concentrate solar radiation onto a heat-absorbing pipe located at the focal line of the parabola. The heated fluid that circulates through the pipe reaches high temperatures and, by means of a heat exchanger, produces energy that can be used to generate steam, to heat water or air, or to run an absorption machine for an air conditioning system.
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