Sopogy, Inypsa & Omniwatt Announce 50-MW MicroCSP Plant

December 23, 2008 | 6 Comments

Sopogy Inc. has entered into a solar power agreement with Spanish solar project developer Inypsa Informes y Proyectos S.A. and German solar project financer Omniwatt to develop a 50-megawatt (MW) MicroCSP solar power plant by December 1, 2010 in Toledo, Spain.

“We are excited to work with Inypsa and Omniwatt in bringing Sopogy’s MicroCSP system to the Spanish market,” said Darren Kimura, president and CEO of Sopogy. “Sopogy’s MicroCSP technologies have been designed for these unique markets by bringing advantages over traditional concentrating solar thermal including fast deployment, pre-engineered kits in the 1 MW, 5 MW and 10 MW increments and use and support of local labor for on-site installation.”

RenewableEnergyWorld.com's Graham Jesmer talked with Alan Yuen, director of corporate development for Sopogy at Internsolar North America in June. He discussed Sopogy's technologies and their various applications as well as some of the company's other recent business deals. To view the interview, play the video below.

6 Comments

Tom Henkel
December 31, 2008

I agree with Sopogy that solar absorption A/C is about to become a major CSP application. The first solar trough driven 2E absorption chiller project in the US is being installed at the Steinway & Sons manufacturing plant in New York City. The project features 38 Abengoa Solar IST PT-1 troughs and a 99-ton Broad dual energy source (hot water and natural gas) 2E absorption chiller. The system will operate up to 350F, and when A/C is not required, the solar heat will produce low pressure process steam.

R t
December 24, 2008

If it is competitive it must be due to a combination of low production costs and low land costs. Don't ignore subsidies, but it is impossible to know the real figures. Maybe they have a really sunny spot and this company was willing to work with them.

As always, the bottom line is $/KwHr (including all costs such as installation and maintenance). This is what is propelling the thin film PV industry despite the lower efficiency compared to other PV technology.

It would great to know what the cost per KwHr is on many projects after a year or two. Alas, you will not get that info often.

Thomas Blum
December 24, 2008

I understand Sopogy's application for roof top industrial applications, but I can't imagine how it's competitive with large-scale troughs in a 50 MW application. Sopogy's system is low temperature and inefficient on a $ per square meter of solar aperture.

R t
December 24, 2008

Ya gotta luv a TLA :)

Either CST or CSH works for me.

SHW could be SWH for solar water heating. The way most most sentences are written it would be SHWH for solar hot water heater, but (as George Carlin might have said) why anyone would heat hot water is beyond me.

Acronyms for specific technologies are common but usually explained in the article.

Since this appeared to be just a brief press release I failed to dig into the web site to see what they were doing. That's why I wished there was a more specific TLA. The pdf document shows what looks like a typical parabolic mirror driving a turbine with a cooling tower - no waste heat recovery (http://sopogy.com/pdf/contentmgmt/App_Sheet_Power_Print.pdf Figure 4: Power Generation Process Flow Chart).

The system uses heat, nothing more.

Carolyn Luce
December 23, 2008

And yet CSP is the correct term in this case. It does not use photovoltaics, so it would be wrong for them to call it CPV. It does not at all provide light, so CSL doesn't make any sense for this product. It is primarily used to generate electric power, which is what the "P" stands for in "CSP". While it can provide heat, Sopogy says "in many cases process heat is a secondary output of a MicroCSP system", where Power would be the primary output. In that case, it could be viewed as CHP (Combined Heat and Power). Of course, CHP doesn't say anything about whether something is solar or not, so it would be a MicroCSP CHP.

Instead of making up new TLAs, like "CSH", why not use existing ones that apply
- CST (Concentrated Solar Thermal)
- STE (Solar Thermal Energy)
- PTC (Parabolic Trough Collector)
and those that don't apply
- SHW (Solar Hot Water) which typically refers to DHW around 120F, not process heat.
- (C)LFR - (Compact) Linear Fresnel Reflector

R t
December 23, 2008

I recently read an article that used the acronym CPV. Too bad more writers don't adopt this convention. CSP is ambiguous.

CSH could be used for concentrated solar heat, of which there is plenty (and more all the time).

CSL could be used when the light itself is desired. One application would be algae farms where the light is conducted thru glass/plastic. Distributed 'natural' lighting in buildings may be another example.

I know it is nit picking but it's the same number of letters delivering more meaning.