GE unit invests with KGAL in 50-MW Spanish concentrated solar power plant featuring molten salt energy storage
28 October 2011
GE Energy Financial Services and German fund KGAL are jointly investing €111.1 million in a 50-megawatt parabolic trough concentrated solar power plant using molten salt energy storage in Torre de Miguel Sesmero, Badajoz, Spain.
The GE unit and KGAL agreed to invest structured equity in Extresol II, developed by Spain-based ACS, Europe’s largest developer, builder and operator of solar thermal power plants. Additional financial details were not disclosed. ACS has built more than €2 billion worth of concentrated solar power facilities with molten salt storage in Spain. An ACS subsidiary, Cobra, finished construction of Extresol II in Dec. 2010 and provides operations and maintenance services to the plant.
This investment is GE Energy Financial Services’ first in a concentrated solar power plant using molten salt storage. Concentrated solar power involves generating power from steam turbines with heat from the sun, avoiding the use of traditional fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas or oil. The plants use mirrors that reflect sunlight to heat a thermal fluid. The fluid is used to boil water to create steam and power steam turbines that generate electricity. Extresol II stores some of the solar heat by melting a special salt mixture during the day, then extracts the heat when the sun isn’t shining, such as at night, to continue producing steam for the turbines. Because salt is able to store heat for long periods, these facilities can generate electricity an extra seven hours a day.
Spain was the first country to use concentrated solar power integrated with molten salt storage. Sixteen 50-megawatt projects have been built in Spain in the last five years, with another 25 under construction or planned. Worldwide, 30 concentrated solar power projects are operating, 10 using molten salt storage and more than 20 under construction or development.
Spain is an excellent location for this technology. Using novel energy storage schemes to supplement nightime losses is the only logical approach. But what about locations without high levels of sunshine?
Andrea Rossi's just completed demo of the Ni-H LENR system generated 470kW over 5.5 hours with <75kW input energy. All new energy systems will need to compete with energy costs as low as $0.002/kWh.
It is a new world without the Order.
Posted by: Reel$$ | 28 October 2011 at 11:18 PM
Reel:
If you have some desperate need to believe in what isn't even a well-run con, that's fine.
I would be wary of making it generally known though.
The man is a known con-man, sets up easily falsified 'demonstrations' utterly under his control, and still the marks believe.
This is instructive about human nature, if not about physics.
Posted by: Davemart | 29 October 2011 at 01:45 AM
Reel: Anyone who reads GreenCC wishes Rossi's e-cat were real. But an ounce of skepticism, please.
Let's see some verification before we proclaim certainty.
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Back to topic. There are certainly plenty of places in the U.S. for this type of molten salt plant. With 300 days of sun, Denver is one example.
Posted by: danm | 29 October 2011 at 07:53 AM
Yes, the world is not short of very sunny places and probably even more so by the end of the current century.
With the world population to reach about 15 billions by 2100 and e-vehicles to grow very rapidly, e-energy production will have to be increased by at least 3X to 4X. A few thousand of this type of solar plants would help.
Will Rossi's energy amplifier work as well as ESStor storage units?
Posted by: HarveyD | 29 October 2011 at 08:36 AM
But what about locations without high levels of sunshine?
Check your maps. To find someplace with the same (or better) level of sunlight all you need is the same latitude and a rain shadow (east of a mountain range like the Rockies). For the USA, this means any place south of Idaho and Wyoming.
Posted by: ai_vin | 29 October 2011 at 03:01 PM