Celebrating the Completion of the World's Largest Concentrating Solar Power Plant

Today, I’m traveling to southern California to participate in the dedication ceremony for the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System. As the largest concentrating solar power (CSP) plant in the world, Ivanpah harnesses the abundant sunlight of the Southwest United States to provide power on a massive scale. The facility has the capacity to generate 392 megawatts (MW) of clean electricity -- enough to power 94,400 average American homes. Most of the power generated by the system will be sold under long-term power purchase agreements to Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison Company.

The successful completion of Ivanpah underscores America’s growing leadership in the global solar industry. As President Obama highlighted during his State of the Union address, more Americans are relying on solar energy to power their homes and business than ever before. In the last five years alone we have doubled the amount of energy we produce form this vital, renewable resource.

This forward progress would not be possible without continued support from the Energy Department for innovative solar power projects like Ivanpah. The result of a successful public-private partnership, Ivanpah is supported by $1.6 billion in investments from our Loan Programs Office. Since a CSP project of this size had never been built before in the United States, the loan guarantee was essential to securing the necessary financing to make it happen.

Ivanpah significantly expands the use of CSP technologies within the United States. Its innovative power-tower technology utilizes a field of mirrors called heliostats to track the sun and focus sunlight onto boilers that sit atop 459-foot tall towers. When the sunlight hits the boiler, it heats the water inside to create superheated steam used to spin an electricity-generating turbine.

The innovation isn’t stopping with Ivanpah. Through LPO’s Section 1705 program there are now five utility-scale CSP plants operating or under construction in the United States that will generate enough clean electricity to power 252,000 homes. In addition to adding substantial clean energy to the grid, constructing these projects in Arizona, California and Nevada has put thousands of Americans in the Southwest to work and created a value chain that stretches across the United States manufacturing supplies like steel, mirrors and gear.

The Energy Department is not only playing a role in CSP by helping to finance its first commercial deployments, my colleagues in SunShot and ARPA-E are driving advancements through innovative research, development and demonstration projects, as well as manufacturing.

Recently, ARPA-E announced $30 million in investments for 12 projects to develop transformational hybrid solar energy technologies that deliver cost-effective power when the sun isn’t shining.
The Department’s SunShot Initiative announced a $25 million funding opportunity to help solar energy manufacturers and the solar supply chain tackle key cost-contributors such as raw materials, labor, and capital expenses and make improvements to labor-intensive solar manufacturing processes.
The Department is partnering with Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), investing $10 million to integrate utility-scale CSP technology with SMUD’s 500 MW)natural gas-fired Cosumnes Power Plant in an effort to demonstrate cost-competitive CSP-fossil fuel power generating systems in the United States.
If last year was the year for PV solar -- 2013 is expected to be the first time in more than a decade that the United States tops world leader Germany in adding solar power to the grid -- then this year is shaping up to be America’s year for CSP. 

Source by:http://energy.gov/articles/celebrating-completion-worlds-largest-concentrating-solar-power-plant

The Year of Concentrating Solar Power: Five New Plants to Power America with Clean Energy

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in Ivanpah Dry Lake, California. | Photo by Gilles Mingasson, Getty Images for Bechtel.

Solar is increasingly providing clean, sustainable energy for our nation’s homes, businesses and industries. Clocking record-breaking growth and reaching a total of more than 4,700 megawatts of new installed capacity, 2013 was a big year for solar photovoltaic systems. But we’re also excited to watch 2014, which will mark a major milestone for a different form of solar energy: concentrating solar power (CSP).

CSP technology uses mirrors to focus and concentrate sunlight onto a receiver from which a heat transfer fluid carries the thermal energy to a power block to generate electricity. The technology can generate energy even when the sun isn’t shining, helping to provide clean power at times of peak demand. 

We recently rolled out the Energy Department’s new report, 2014: The Year of Concentrating Solar Power, which focuses on five of the most innovative CSP plants in the world. All of these projects are expected to be switched on in the southwestern United States by the end of the year as a result of sustained, long-term investments by the Department and committed solar industry partners.

These five new utility-scale CSP plants will pay major dividends. When completed, they will have the capacity to generate 1.26 gigawatts of electricity, nearly quadrupling America’s preexisting CSP capacity with the potential to power more than 350,000 average American homes.

These innovative CSP plants illustrate how the Energy Department advances high-impact clean energy technologies from inception to market through sustained, long-term investments. First, Energy Department research and development programs -- like the SunShot Initiative -- advance early-stage technologies. In this case, CSP technology was initially developed with the support of the Energy Department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Then, our Loan Programs Office worked with the private sector to encourage investment and accelerated deployment of CSP technology at commercial scale.

Loan guarantees are an instrumental way the Energy Department helps technologies like CSP get the financing they historically have trouble accessing for their first few commercial projects. Through successful public-private partnerships, we’ve been able to prove that CSP is a commercially viable energy source in the U.S., and we look forward to seeing it grow in the future.

Source by:http://energy.gov/articles/year-concentrating-solar-power-five-new-plants-power-america-clean-energy

Top 6 Things You Didn't Know About Nuclear Power

These are the first lightbulbs lit by nuclear fission at Argonne's EBR or Experimental Breeder Reactor.| Energy Department photo.

This article is part of the Energy.gov series highlighting the “Top Things You Didn’t Know About…” Be sure to check back for more entries soon.

Historically, some key advancements in nuclear energy happened during the month of December. On December 2, 1942, Enrico Fermi created the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction at Stagg Field in Chicago. Eight years later, on December 20, 1951, the first nuclear electricity was produced at an Argonne facility in Idaho -- now the Idaho National Lab.

Here are some other facts you might not know about nuclear energy.

Nuclear power is one of the two ways to produce electricity for multi-year space missions. The other is solar power. Check out the history of nuclear power in space to learn more.

Small Modular Reactors -- or SMRs -- are one of the latest nuclear innovations. Check out our handy SMR infographic on how they’re designed, how they work and why they’re important.

The Energy Department offers scholarships and fellowships for undergraduate and graduate research in nuclear science. In May we awarded over $5 million for 42 undergraduate scholarships and 33 graduate fellowships. Learn more about these programs on the Nuclear Energy University Programs website.

The world’s first full-scale nuclear power plant was opened December 23, 1957 in Shippingport, PA. This is six years -- almost to the day -- after the first nuclear electricity was produced at an Argonne lab site in Idaho.

Illinois is by far the largest producer of nuclear energy in the United States, followed by Pennsylvania and South Carolina. Illinois produced 1,010.2 trillion British Thermal Units or BTU in 2012. Pennsylvania produced 787.8 trillion BTU and South Carolina produced 536 trillion BTU. You can find more information on our map of energy production by state.

The Department of Energy has a middle school curriculum that centers on nuclear energy available on our website. It’s called The Harnessed Atom.

To learn more about nuclear energy and the Energy Department’s research, check out our nuclear energy page.

Source by:http://energy.gov/articles/top-6-things-you-didnt-know-about-nuclear-power