CSP Power Tower OK'd by Federal Government

Stephen Lacey, Editor
October 07, 2010 | 5 Comments

The approvals for large concentrating solar power plants are coming fast and furious now. Today brought another good piece of news for BrightSource Energy, which got the go-ahead from the federal government to build a 370-MW "Power Tower" project in California.

The Ivanpah project, which uses fields of mirrors that concentrate light onto a central receiver, will be the first Power Tower project built on federal land in the U.S.

BrightSource's project brings the total capacity of federally approved solar projects to 1,124 MW. Now it's up to the companies to get moving on the projects so they can qualify for the Treasury grant program that expires at the end of the year.

It's been a good week for the large-scale renewables industry. On Wednesday Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signed a lease for America's first offshore wind farm, Cape Wind.

As always, keep reading the site. There are plenty more announcements to come. With all of the developers rushing to get projects in the ground, it looks like 2011 is going to be the year of CSP.

5 Comments

Richard .
October 9, 2010

@Steve-Poppitz
Thanks for pointing out the link. In the link, the project is 3 power plants: 2*100MW+200MW, each with 3 or 4 towers, in total 10 power towers. This seems more realistic.

As you mention there is no problem having a cluster of smaller towers, it also makes the construction easier to manage.

Steve Poppitz
October 8, 2010

dear rif,
if you click on the IVANPAH PROJECT link above you can read that it is 3 towers. BUT HEY there is so much land out in the desert why not shoot for 30 or 40 pf these towers. we are all going to want to be driving e-cars very soon; however, the general public hasn't even got that on their radar yet.

Richard .
October 8, 2010

This 370MW power plant cannot just be a single tower. For comparison the current largest CSP tower design is the PS20 in Spain with 20MW. To increase the power one must have many more mirrors that will then have to stand further away from tower. Due to atmospheric attenuation mirrors standing far away will be less effective.

My guesstimate is that they will build the power plant with ca. 5-10 separate power towers.

Building multiple smaller systems is probably also a good idea for implementation, as Brightsource Energy has only been building a single CSP power tower plant in Israel with 6MW.

Stephen Lacey
October 8, 2010

Yes, indeed. You are certainly right. It's the first Power Tower on federal lands....No trademark, just a mistake.

Thanks!

ANONYMOUS
October 8, 2010

How curious that you proclaim that the first "Power Tower" will be built in the US when there is a picture of Solar One, built in Barstow, CA nearly 30 years ago, just to the right of the article. I suspect that "Power Tower" is a trademark, and if so, there should have been a registration symbol attached to it.

Standby for my company's announcement next week when we introduce the worlds first "wheel" and a follow-on product next month called "fire". An IPO will be forthcoming.

Add Your Comments

To add your comments you must sign-in or create a free account.

Stephen Lacey

I am a reporter with ClimateProgress.org, a blog published by the Center for American Progress. I am former editor and producer for RenewableEnergyWorld.com, where I contributed stories and hosted the Inside Renewable Energy Podcast. Keep...