The 280MW Solana Generating Station in Arizona has begun transmitting electricity to the mains grid as part of its testing phase.
Owned, built and operated by Abengoa Solar, output from Solana will be purchased by Arizona’s largest and longest-serving electricity utility; APS.
A solar thermal plant covering approximately 7.7 square kilometres, it consists of 2,700 tracking parabolic trough mirrors. The mirrors focus sunlight on pipes containing a heat transfer fluid that flows to steam boilers where it heats water to create steam. The steam then drives two 140-megawatt turbines to produce power.
Solana has an additional and very important feature – heat storage in the form of 125,000 metric tons of molten salt stored in tanks. This allows for an additional 6 hours of electricity production during the night and in adverse conditions.
“Solana is a monumental step forward in solar energy production,” said Don Brandt, APS President and Chief Executive Officer. “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.”
Solana is situated near Gila Bend, around 110 km southwest of Phoenix. Once fully completed, the plant will employ 85 full-time workers.
With the addition of Solana, APS will have 750 megawatts of solar power capacity in its portfolio by the end of this year, enough to provide for the power needs of 185,000 its customers. Solana on its own is capable of supplying 70,000 households with clean power.
Another major solar thermal plant in the USA readying for prime time is the 377MW Ivanpah project in California’s Mojave Desert. Last month, one unit of the three unit facility transmitted its first electricity to the grid as part of testing.
