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| Acciona opens “Nevada Solar One” (Acciona held the opening ceremony for Nevada Solar One (NSO), a 64 MW solar thermal electric plant located in the Nevada desert. It entered service last year and is the biggest facility of its type built in the world in the last 17 years. With an investment of 266 million dollars, it will supply electricity equivalent to the consumption of 14,000 homes. Acciona President José Manuel Entrecanales pointed out that NSO is a benchmark in the company's commitment to a more sustainable energy model. The 64 MW rated capacity facility is located 51 south-west of Las Vegas near Boulder City in the Nevada desert. It covers a surface area of almost 14 million square feet, equivalent to around 170 soccer fields. It has 48 linear miles of parabolic trough collectors (760 sections) with 182,000 curved mirrors that collect and concentrate the sun's rays onto 18,240 absorber tubes located in the focal line. A fluid that heats up to 750ºF circulates through these tubes and is used to generate steam, which drives a turbine connected to a generator to produce electricity. The power generated is fed into the grid, which runs very near the facility, and is sold to the utility companies Nevada Power and Serra Pacific under to a 20-year purchase contract. Both companies buy the power to cover the demand for electricity produced from renewables in the state of Nevada: 20% of total electricity consumption in 2013, with 5% of the figure coming from solar energy. The Nevada facility, which uses in-house solar tracking technology, generates most electricity in peak hours in the middle of the day, when air conditioning hits peak levels in cities such as Las Vegas. It therefore produces power when it is most needed. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Construction News :: home page |