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StumbleRemote California town blazes trail with solar plant that saves water
New technology uses less water, which suits Nevada’s climate
A view of the Skyline Solar facility in Nipton, Calif. Friday, June 11, 2010. The 80 kilowatt , High Gain Solar (HGS) 1000 system power plant will provide 85% of Nipton’s electricity needs.
Sunday, June 13, 2010 | 2 a.m.
Nipton, Calif.
Sun archives
- State promoting small-scale urban solar development (6-11-2010)
- State reveals plan to step up solar energy development (6-4-2010)
- Solar manufacturer First Solar buying developer NextLight Renewable Power (4-28-2010)
- Amargosa Valley solar power plant plan clears another hurdle (3-22-2010)
- County OKs plans for solar power plant near Primm (3-18-2010)
- Expert: Climate change effort will take centuries (3-2-10)
- Amargosa Valley warms up to solar plan (1-21-2009)
- Storing the sun’s heat (12-31-2009)
- NV Energy agrees to purchase Crescent Dunes solar power (12-22-2009)
- Amargosa Valley solar plant to use less water (11-17-2009)
- Vision for desert solar power plant expands (9-23-2009)
- Dirty detail: Solar panels need water (9-18-09)
- Latest obstacle to rural solar plants a tiny toad (9-11-2009)
- The cost of building a solar powered economy (8-16-2009)
- Small town making hay (3-8-2009)
- Another solar power plant in the works for Boulder City (1-19-2009)
- Solar power plant opens in Boulder City (1-5-2009)
- Solar firms seek land (12-24-2008)
On the southern horizon is a new breed of solar plant, one that could be a game changer for the industry.
Just across the California border, Nipton has unveiled a sun-powered generator that is expected to provide about 85 percent of the town’s electricity over the course of a year.
The solar plant uses a new technology, concentrating solar photovoltaic, known as CPV, which could be a boon in places like Nevada where the sun is strong, but water for power plants is scarce.
Concentrating solar power plants are expected to use far less water than their solar thermal cousins because they lack the cooling requirements and don’t need water to heat for steam. And because they have fewer photovoltaic panels to be cleaned than a traditional photovoltaic plant, they could use less water than traditional photovoltaic arrays.
Although massive solar arrays on thousands of acres of mostly federal land get the lion’s share of the attention, some think everyday Nevadans will benefit more from growth in small-scale renewable energy systems called distributed generation. These smaller projects, like rooftop solar or small terrestrial projects like the one in Nipton, provide electricity directly to a building without expensive transmission lines. No bulldozing the desert, either.
The state energy office this month announced it will seek third-party agreements with small-scale solar developers to build dozens of new arrays on state land. Some of the projects are expected to be relatively portable solar arrays on vacant lots — just like the one 64 miles southwest of Las Vegas in Nipton.
The 80-kilowatt project is part of the one-time mining camp’s plan to become an eco-tourism mecca. Nipton is on the northern edge of the Mojave National Preserve, home of the popular Kelso Dunes. Many park visitors are “granola and Prius” types, and they usually stay at campgrounds and hotels in Nipton. The town is betting that stepping up its environmental reputation will drive tourism growth.
“We’re in the hospitality business in Nipton,” said Gerald Freeman, its principal administrator. “This is all part of our plan to be an environmentally friendly destination. We’re going to project our environmentalism strongly. That’s the underlying theme of Nipton for the future: to move progressively toward a sustainable, environmentally friendly community.”
And in the Mojave Desert, that means solar panels.
Freeman has been looking into powering the town with renewable energy since the 1980s. But it was only recently, with the new technology, federal tax incentives and the advent of third-party ownership, that the plan became economically viable.
It took just a few months for Freeman to find a company that would finance the purchase and installation of the system in exchange for a set price per kilowatt hour sold to Nipton residents.
Prices charged by the local utility, Southern California Edison, have gone up an average of 6 percent a year, Freeman said. Under the power purchase agreement, the rate could increase only 3 percent a year. And after the tax incentives run out in about six years, the town has the option of buying the installation at a reduced price.
“We’re pleased to be able to lower our cost and also do our bit in terms of getting off fossil fuels,” Freeman said. “It’s going to save us money right from the start and will get better later on as electric (bills) rise. It was an easy decision to put in a system that would cover most of our power needs in Nipton.”
The system is designed by Skyline Solar, a Silicon Valley-based solar photovoltaic manufacturer that has combined the portability of solar photovoltaics with the concentrating power of mirrors used in solar thermal power plants.
With the help of an Energy Department grant and U.S. Patent Office fast tracking, Skyline is among the first American companies to bring concentrating photovoltaic designs to market.
Its system resembles the Nevada Solar One thermal array in Boulder City, except where the center-mounted pipes full of molten salt would be is a row of photovoltaic cells. Using photovoltaics on a concentrating solar power frame allows the plant to take up less land, and eliminates the need for extensive land leveling, pipe laying and liquid storage silos. And with the addition of mirrors, it can produce far more electricity than a traditional solar photovoltaic array.
No pipes, no buildings and no water or chemicals are needed, Skyline spokesman Tim Keeting said.
Products such as Skyline’s can be planned and assembled quickly — the Nipton project took just five weeks to come online — and they can be built with tiny footings drilled into the land or no drilling at all, making it easier to convert back to bare dirt should the land be needed for another use later, said Robert Mumford, spokesman for the solar division of Panelized Structures, which installed the system.
The Skyline system is one of the first concentrating solar photovoltaic systems to come to market. That’s mostly because the federal government has historically channeled research and development grants to rooftop photovoltaic technologies, according to National Renewable Energy Lab reliability group manager and photovoltaic pioneer Sarah Kurtz, who was involved with the Energy Department grant and attended a ribbon-cutting celebrating the new power plant in Nipton on Friday. A few of the town’s residents were there along with local and county dignitaries and the team of engineers, government workers, contractors and financiers who made the project happen.
“There has been a real change in just the last few years,” Kurtz said.
The Skyline system, which she called “elegant and versatile in its design” was able to move from paper to prototype much more quickly than some other CPV systems because the design was simple and took components that had been tested elsewhere and combined them for increased efficiency and expedited assembly.
“Skyline has broken some records on bringing this to market with speed,” Kurtz said.
These smaller solar installations also save land because they usually sit on developed sites or sites that were bulldozed in anticipation of development. And they rarely need new transmission lines and corridors to carry the power to market because they usually serve nearby buildings.
Skyline has about 20 megawatts worth of projects in various stages around the globe, including Nevada. Keeting said it is too soon to reveal exactly where and when its first CPV project will begin construction in the state, but he says if all the contracts and permits work out it could be within the next couple of years.
Small-scale solar is a growing business in Nevada. Panelized Structures’ Las Vegas team built its first large distributed generation solar project in the parking lot of the ProCaps laboratory in Henderson two years ago. The business has grown by as much as 100 percent each year since, while the rest of its building divisions foundered, Mumford said.
“The business has just exploded,” Mumford said. “In the month between May and June, we’ll install 3.4 megawatts of solar panels across the Southwest — about 2.5 megawatts in Nevada alone.”
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then why don't the state of nevada use this. WHY. i forgot nevada power can't stand competitition
I saw that plant, guess it can power the lottery machines.
New Mexico Oregon now California are taking positive steps in the employment and innovation area, Gibbons must realize that taxes are not the be all and end all to attracting business investment.
Stephanie Tavares is doing a better job reporting enviromentally friendly ways to use renewable energy than most of the Nevada environmental groups! This is a far better way to use this technology than taking out 5,000 acres of old growth desert habitat at a time. Where are they getting their funding now? Why do most of the big enviros stay too quiet when 5,000 acres of habitat are about to be trashed for renewable energy? Why are they so afraid to ask for green energy that leaves a small foot print? Why is that so hard for them? Why do groups like the Sierra Club stay very quiet when the entire desert is on the chopping block for energy development? Why are they so useless when there are clearly better ways to do it? Seriously, renewable energy sprawl is the biggest enevironmental threat locally, at least directly to the landscape, but most of the environmental groups seem willing to give it up when they don't even half to. Crazy times!
There is a future in green technology that is actually green...
There are only twenty people living in that town. That's not a big enough test sample.
A good rule-of-thumb for estimating the power from insolation (solar rays shining on a surface) that can be used, after the usual inefficiencies are considered, is about 100 watts per square meter, or about one tenth of the Solar Constant of 1.3 KW per square meter due to the 93 million mile distance of the earth from the sun (From the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics)
Even if one were to focus that irradiated power, one cannot get more power than 100 Watts per square meter. Focusing the irradiated power only CONCENTRATES the power, but it cannot INCREASE the power, because the power is based on the surface area of the opening of the solar array, not on the focusing of it.
The gigantic Nipton array will only produce a puny 80 KW, hopefully in the high-noon daytime. That is equivalent to supplying 80 electric room heaters using 1 KW each. It is equivalent to the power of a 60 cubic inch displacement motorcycle internal combustion engine.
A city power plant generates about 2,000 Megawatts 24/7, or 2,000 x 10^6 watts. Hence a city power plant generates about 2,000 x 10^6 / 80 x 10^3 times as much power, namely about 25,000 as much power as this puny array. And that is during the day. During the night the Nipton array would be inactive, while the city power plant would continue running.
This is California Dreaming, "smoke and mirrors."
It is also an example of Harry Reid Socialism, as our "Dear Leader" Harry Reid would have us believe in energy independence by resorting to this "mouse-power", while he would actually be playing a huge joke on us Lemmings going over the cliff into energy famine.
And the people will continue to be fooled by this "black magic" -- until it is too late.
How tragic-comedic.
When will some child tell us that the "Emperor is not wearing any clothes"?
Shine on! Shine on Harvest Moon.
Drop by drop, my friends. Ray by beaming ray. Cell by cell. Molecule by molecule. The grope for sensible and practical use of our planetary heritage is coming to light, so to speak.
We don't have to line up with our cash at the door of NVEnergy anymore to get juice.
That golden globe puts out its waves and we ride the ripples, fellow earth surfers.
Without that chariot charging through the skies, we would be at absolute zero here in solar paradise.
It's money versus sense in the battle for solar gain; do we sell it or let it shine on us all?? I am one for all.
Let the fossil merchants have their due. We need them once in a cloudy while. But the waves from our galactic nuke get us a long way down our roads allby themselves. Fair is fair and clean is clean.
Commenter Schnorchel wishes to belittle solar energy because it is a diffuse source. But he betrays his agenda driven by politics, not science. Yes, solar takes a lot of square meters to capture sufficient energy to be useful, but sucking oil and digging coal are destroying the only planet we have. The deserts of the Southwest could capture enough energy to supply all of the U.S. energy needs. Yes, we have to store energy for night use, and it has a huge up-front cost, but once the investment is made we have fixed-cost energy with no end (see e.g. Zweibel, "A Grand Solar Plan," Scientific American, January 2008). Oil, coal and, yes, even nuclear are limited resources and endanger our biosphere in ways we are only now beginning to appreciate (thanks BP). Schnorchel misses the point (or hides it) that concentrating photovoltaic arrays reduce the cost of manufacture and operation of solar electric plants (and save water), thus reduce the incremental cost of power produced by them. It has nothing to do with "socialism," just practicality.
"The deserts of the Southwest could capture enough energy to supply all of the U.S. energy needs."
Myth, big myth.
Number one: Solar energy can not be stored on a big utility scale
Number 2: Energy would be lost in transmission grids, up to 20 percent.
Number 3: Upgrading the nation's power grid to accomnidtae this would cost several trillion dollars.
Number 4: Solar can support local power needs at the point of use. That's why the Nipton system can be sustainable. Nipton does not need much power.
Number 5: The sun shines in places besides the southwest. Solar energy in the southwest can help the southwest. If you try to transport it, it will need to be subsidized and there is little sustainable future in that.
So you can say the desert is a wasteland all you want, but the technology is not there to make it the world's energy center.
The myth that the Mojave Desert can power the nation is feel good propaganda from Al Gore. Investor bait at the most. Don't fall for it...
Good riddance to the badly mismanaged '00's.
Those thinking about long-term recovery, know the environment will be a big winner in the conversion to biofuels & biopower.
Balkingpoints / www
Keep burning coal, it keeps my electric bills down.
Pass the vodka comrade, i am beginning to have thoughts.
So 702, you got it. Use it where ya need it. Let it land on yer roof, nab it and run yer fridge, puter, fan, kapische?
I love the idea, but the author of the article should have pointed out that a town that has about 20 to 30 TOTAL PEOPLE LIVING THERE, and SAVING THE TOWN 85%, is NOT a big deal!
When you've got a town that's the size of 30,000 and can save 85% of the power costs for that size of a village/city, THEN WRITE ABOUT WHAT A BIG DEAL IT IS....
Until then, just report what a tiny little cluster of people who live in ONE OF THE SMALLEST HAMLETS IN THE USA, are doing to help not only save on electricity costs, but to help PIONEER the COMING AGE of SOLAR POWER.
Then the headline will still attract readers, but for many who have no idea how small Nipton is, it's misleading as it reads now.
Well I am sure the article suggests that putting the panels where the need for power exists clearly beats the mega-sized space-invaders that solar COULD be.
Roof-tops and central ground-mounted solar application eliminate the need for much fossil consumption.
And then a funny thing happens. All these people catch fire in a way. Their consciousness alters to make energy considerations they never made before.
I disagree with the piano lady in that it's a suggestion made manifest of the simple adaptation of free rays to meet a need that could easily be replicated here in solar prardise, if you will.
Las Vegas: Solar Prairiedice, Pairadise, paradice, p..
Nevada could be the king of solar!
Ms. Tavares,
Please do your job. It would seem to be a simple matter of reporting the NUMBERS that support Mr. Freeman's "...going to save us money right from the start..." We understand that Mr. Freeman wants to be in the eco tourist business, but at whose expense was his solar plant constructed? More than likely Ms. Tavares, it was at my neighbors' and my expense.
Please report the facts. Here are two questions - amongst many obvious others - that a normal reader is asking after reading your story. What is "our government's 'fast tracking' and at what level was the Energy Department's grant? We long for the news to be factual and not fantastical. Please provide that service, Ms. Tavares.
Thank you in advance.
Regards,
Purgatory
Let's take a look at a country that's already tried this approach. Here's a paragraph from an article referenced below:
Ironically, President Obama points to Spain as a role model for renewable energy policies in cap and trade, promising "millions of additional jobs and entire new industries." However, Dr. Gabriel Calzada Alvarez, professor of economics at King Juan Carlos University, sums up the cost of a decade of green energy subsidies in Spain: 2.2 jobs were lost for each of the 50,200 green jobs created, and 28.6 billion euros were spent. He told Heartland Institute conference attendees that public aid to renewables cost more in 2009 than electricity production for the entire country, noting that the unit cost of renewable energies is 3.3 times that of other energy sources. This misallocation of resources is certainly a contributing factor to Spain's skyrocketing unemployment and public debt. The Institute for Energy Research, in its critique of Alvarez's 2009 Study of the Effects on Employment of Public Aid to Renewable Energy Sources, said that "the United States should expect a worse return (measured in job creation) from its own subsidies to renewables."
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/...
So when you see Harry's guys on TV talking about how solar put them back to work remember that if the Spanish model holds true the cost of that job was 2.2 jobs.
Had enough government yet?
Smells like John Birch propaganda around here...
bb brain needs to read reality based material rather than crap spewed out by paranoid organizations through their mouthpiece "The New American".
Bring back Enron and "lower power prices" to Nevada. California got such a deal maybe its time to do this for Nevada also. To avoid transmission loss could you not build a coal plant in town in Las Vegas? That would be closer to the demand and should be less cost.
sure castle, but
one problem is the durn smoke.
At my first plant we had to post a watch to make sure the smoke didn't git our cars. Ya see, when the coal burns, the acid smoke can eat the paint completely off the parking lot full a cars of us poor bastards having to work in the place that makes the acid, and the electricity, and the dust and the cancer and do it all in way less than one shift.
So. you're absolutely thinking right. It's just the darn truth that's so inconvenient about getting exactly what we want without having to give up sumpthin.
Shoulda seen sum of them fish we caught in the pond outside the plant. Two heads, a thumb-like thing stickin out of one of 'em's snout like an arrow, a broken arrow. Spots all over their skins. Tasted awful too. I wouldn't let ma kids even eat 'em but being the curious geezer, I did allow myself one bite just to savor their little trapped and poisoned lives.
Just to clarify a few things, for the sake of forward momentum on this discussion:
1.The Nipton array is 4/10 of an acre -- most would not consider this "giant." This design can be upscaled to 1 megawatt on about 6 acres of land.
2. The story might have been unclear on the water aspect. There is no water used in the ongoing operation of the array, but there may be some consumed in washing the panels and mirrors if they get dirty enough to significantly reduce efficiency.
3. This particular array is not meant as a utility-scale system like the ones planned for nearby Primm. Those plants would sell hundreds of megawatts of electricity to utilities in comparatively faraway markets. This system is a distributed generation system, similar in use to a solar panel you might have on your roof, only it's being used to power a handful of houses and businesses. So it's not entirely fair to compare this to a utility scale project on an apples to apples basis. It would be better to compare it to, say, the parking lot solar at the Springs Preserve.
4. As it says in the story, the state of Nevada is preparing to build several (actually at least 30) large distributed generation solar projects across the state. There was a story in the Sun about this last week if you want more information.
Pergatory:
I'd be happy to report the numbers if they were public information.
They are not.
This is proprietary information. It is when NV Energy does it and it is when Nipton does it.
This information is kept from the public in order to protect the companies' bargaining position.
I don't make these rules, but I have no legal way of getting around them unless the company offers them up.
This may be small scale but these are necessary steps that help out over time. I don't know of anyone that thinks this conversion is going to happen over night or that it will completely replace hydro/coal/gas for generating electricity but if in 20 years it represents 15-25% of the power generated then it will be worth it. Our dependence on oil/nuclear/hydro didn't happen over night nor will it get replaced over night.
Sunlizard, your conclusory statements knocking large-scale solar are unfounded and, frankly, wrong. There IS enough insolation in the deserts of the U.S. Southwest to provide all U.S. energy needs, including even transportation if it were used to hydrolyze water to produce hydrogen and oxygen. Yes, it would take a huge investment, but how much do you think we spend subsidizing oil companies to explore deeper and further? Or the nuclear industry to build power plants? But with solar, once built there is no fuel cost. None.
Utility scale storage is proven technology using compressed air or electrochemical systems. (See Zweibel cited above). These technologies are improving all the time.
Long distance transmission using high voltage DC systems is also proven technology, and the construction of a "smart grid" would create tens of thousands of jobs.
And, yes, we can put solar collectors in plenty of places in the U.S., but the best climate happens to be here. We are the center of the solar universe.
It seems the only people who belittle the potential of solar energy are those who just don't like the perceived politics of those proposing it. But this is not a Democrat vs. Republican issue. It is a matter of national security. We cannot sustain the current system of raping and pillaging the Earth so we can drive Humvees. The U.S. is 5% of the world's population and consumes 20% of its energy. Do you think all the oil BP, Exxon etc. are drilling for in the Gulf is for the U.S.? It is sold on the open market to the highest bidder, often China. So it is not just tree huggers who ought to be pushing aggressively for solar, but everyone who cares about the nation's security and well-being.
It is refreshing to read nvpatentlawyer's posts and to know that there are still decent human beings in this world... read this story as though the glass were half full :)
Lol. The whole town of Nipton is just one big white trash trailer park..
Nipton is proud of its accomplishments, its people and the promise that shines on our developing community.
Many of our homes were manufactured, but in every single one you will find a warm and loving human being who respects life, culture and prosperity through progress.
I was working the wheat harvest the summerof69, feeding Americans with the grains that came up in freedom and dignity. What, pray-tell, were you involved in, summerof69, bad-mouthing your fellow Americans?
BTW summerof69
since when did the construction method of domiciles or comparative skin color influence your opinion of folks?
what are ya', stuck in time?
Hydrocarbons breed this tendency to STICK to rocks, stupidity and worn-out creeds. Solar tends to engender a brighter, fresher acceptance of the realm we inhabit.
Isn't it funny how the solar constant can be so suddenly monumental!
That golden chariot's been on duty since before anybody can recall and still shows up like clockwork!
And now that the fossils have combusted and we're strugglin fer a slave to do our dirty work, POOF!, somebody looked around, saw the shadow and howled!
An solar is hot today. Whooeee...watch out!
Ephemerals shining bright enough for you to believe, YET???
No more clouds!!! Heeyahhh!
Gulf Coast Fresh Sea Food Diner:
Blackened halibut
remember shrimp scampi? try our shrimp dino
oysters in sweet, light crud
DO NOT WALK ON SAND OR WATER
"Nipton goes Skyline Solar" http://bit.ly/avetUc is my Blog post with the installed cost data. Nipton qualifies for an incentive under the CSI (California Solar Initiative) program which helps to subsidize the system based on every kiloWatt-hour (kWh) of electricity generated.
I write for a technical solar audience, so please understand the Skyline Solar system concentrates sunlight onto solar cells to lower the cost per kWh of electricity generated which differs from the upfront cost per Watt installation cost I cite in the post. Skyline Solar trades off upfront cost to generate more kiloWatt-hours.
"Enviromental" people should not oppose Renewable Energy. Not because I lack forsight, because they lack compromise. It is common fact that excess CO2 will change the biosphere and weather patterns. RE on the large scale needed to cut emissions by 50% will only require about 1/4 the landspace already used by roads and highways in the USA.
However, I am against the bulldozing of thousands of square miles of land. This means we have to resort to a solar "system" of individual units that merely require post hole placement on undisturbed land. That does not "hurt" anything but a few unfortunate insects and plants. Most plants and all animals will either not be in the way of the post hole machine, or will run from it! Individual mirrors (for power towers) only require some land paving for the central towers and molten salt storage (if used). However, most Concentrated Solar Power has critical water and thermal issues, not to mention too many moving parts.
PV or dish units are PERFECT because they do NOT require paving and ONLY need water for cleaning... Big deal huh! (every FF plant uses hudreds of times this amount of water, just to cool the process (to convert "unused" steam back into water)!
Therefore, the next time you hear of someone saying something like "Solar or wind is bad", just remember this... They did not do their research!
Another argument against solar is that it is too expensive, especially on the grand scale needed to power the world 24/7. Electrical storage is prohibitative! Of course it is! But is that a reason to give up? If that happened everytime in the history books, nothing would have been invented.
We do NOT have to worry about electrical storage... yet. We have enough natural gas reserves to literally cut CO2 emissions by OVER 50% "overnight". This is done by simply replacing coal with NG! It is still far cheaper than solar in the interim...
All beginnings are quite expensive, especially since humanity has not developed the total "robotic PV, mirrors and structural parts assembly plant" yet. Once developed, costs will be MANY times cheaper than now per watt and the installation jobs will be unending (no robot arms allowed on that end) by the tune of, well, thousands or even tens of square miles!
Coupled with a ban on coal (in favor of NG) and the eventual robotic manufacture of grid storage (batteries), there is the possibility of a totally solid state AND GREEN grid! I highly doubt that a CO2 reduction of "only" 75% or so will even hurt the ecosystem `~'
So not only is solar "good for the ecosystem", it is good for the eco in economics.