Nevada Solar One Video

How much is the electricity price ?

Does anybody know what the cost breakdown for a concentrated solar project like Nevada Solar One would cost? I'm after what the parabolic trough mirrors cost, the heated oil pipes, and the support structure to hold them costs but I can't find this anywhere on the web. I know that Nevada Solar One cost roughly $280 million but I don't know how much went to the mirrors. It seems like the plant's costs would be the same as a coal plant except for the costs of these mirrors. Any ideas?

The desert areas in Nevada and California are among the best in the world for direct normal solar radiation.  Take a look at www.nrel.gov/csp/maps.html to see why they are located there.

This are of the country is closer to seven or eight kilowatt hours per day per square meter of panels.

Wrt heat transfer.  The issue is not lag in heating up the fluid since it gets up to several hundred degrees.  The oil holds the heat better as it is piped from the solar field to the heat recovery steam generator.

This may sound like a stupid question to many. but please explain why the liquid in the receiver is not water? It seems to me that a higher efficiency would be achieved by eliminating the losses incorporasted in the secondary heat transfor of oil heat to water.
ML

What is the cost of the electricity produced to the consumer? What is the payoff time estimated for the total plant? How does this compare to a wind turbine field?

Back ground on Nevada Solar One "It has 76 kilometres of parabolic cylinder concentrators with almost 219,000 mirrors that concentrate the sun's rays onto over 18,000 receiver tubes located on their focal line. A fluid that heats up to 400 °C flows through these pipes and is used to produce steam and drive a conventional turbine connected to a generator to produce electricity."

Schott glass is the manufacturer. I even think they are a partner to this web site. Here is their site on the project.

http://www.us.schott.com/solarthermal/english/applications/power_stations.html?highlighted_text=nevada

Dixon Hinderaker's comment is interesting, but gossamersf only builds the structure.  Does anyone know who builds the mirrors?

 

Great project and great video. We need lots more CSP plants like this and larger. Also there is a need to focus on cost reductions and adding low cost energy storage capability. Congrats to State of Nevada, Nevada Power and Acciona.

The Nevada Solar One trough frame design incorporated a proprietary "organic connection technology" that reduced weight, number of members, and cost by 30%. This technology is revolutionary and appropriate for all CSP applications. Visit www.gossamersf.com

The aluminum extruder and fabricator of the frames was www.hydro.com/northamerica

it's a 64MWp facility but it produces 129MWh a year? Assuming there are more that 2 hours of direct solar irradiation in the Nevada desert, the efficiency numbers must look awful.
But that's ok. Great project!

Why is the desert nect to the power plant so emtpy?
Think bigger please, lots of deserts in the world.

Ooops, its 129GWh. That's better. Still, only 2000 hours of full sunshine?

I think it must higher. Here in the netherlands we have 1000 hours and Italy already 1700 hours. I aspect 2200 hours direct solar irradiation in the Nevada dessert. But....Please keep the solar modules clean.

Martin