Getting electricity with the help of solar plants is the fastest growing direction of "green" energy. To date, most of the world's solar energy is generated by China, India and the United States, followed by Middle Eastern countries.
The solar industry is booming, especially in the desert regions of Asia and the Middle East, where huge "solar farms" are being expanded and rebuilt at a rapid pace. The Digital Trends publication has collected information about the largest solar power plants (SPP) operating today in the world.
Solar Park Tengger (Tengger Desert Solar Park), the largest solar power plant in the world.
Location: China.
Object area: 43 sq. km.
Generation capacity - 1547 MW.
Tengger Solar Park, also known as the "Great Solar Wall", is located in Zhongwei City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China. SPP is located on the territory of the Tengger desert, occupying about 3.25% of its area.
Tanger Solar Park is larger in size than New York's ten Central Parks, and the solar power plant has a maximum capacity of about 1.5 gigawatts, which is comparable to most nuclear power plants. Given that there is enough space for further expansion, the Tengger solar park will most likely remain the largest solar power plant in the world in the near future.
Solar Park Bhadla (Bhadla Solar Park), the largest solar power plant in India.
Location: Rajasthan, India.
Object area: 40 sq. km.
Generation capacity - 1365 MW.
Bhadla Solar Park is located in the Jodhpur district in the Indian state of Rajasthan in the northwest of the country. At present, the capacity of the solar power plant is about 1,365 MW, but the facility continues to expand, and by December 2019 it is planned to bring it to a design capacity of 2,255 MW. Thus, the Bhadla solar park has a chance to win the title of the largest solar power plant in the world. With its help, India plans to achieve an ambitious goal - to receive 17% of the electricity produced in the country from solar installations.
Longyangxia Dam Solar Park Solar Power Plant.
Location: Tibetan Plateau, China.
Area of the object: about 30 sq. km.
Generation power - 850 MW.
The Longyangxia solar power plant is located in the Chinese province of Qinghai, on the western side of the eponymous hydroelectric power plant with a capacity of 1280 MW and forms a single energy complex with it. Solar power plants and hydroelectric power plants complement each other: solar installations help to save water resources of a hydroelectric power plant, which, in turn, compensates for fluctuations in the generation of energy by solar panels.
Villanueva solar power plant, the largest solar power plant in North and South America.
Location: State of Coahuila, Mexico.
Area of the object: about 24 sq. km.
Generation capacity - 828 MW.
Enel Green Power, the operator of the Villanueva solar power plant, first commissioned the 427 MW Villanueva 1 solar park, and at the beginning of 2018, the 327 MW Villanueva 3 solar park was added to it. The total amount of investments in SES Villanueva is estimated by the company at 710 million dollars. According to Enel, there are about 2.5 million solar panels at the site, capable of generating more than 2,000 GWh of electricity per year. Villanueva is the largest operating solar power plant in Mexico, with the help of which the country plans to increase the share of renewable energy in total electricity generation to 35% by 2024.
Kamuthi Solar Power Station.
Location: Tamil Nadu state in southern India.
Area of the object: about 10 sq. km.
Generation capacity - 648 MW.
At the end of October 2018, the Kamuti complex is considered the sixth largest solar power plant in the world, although earlier, by the time it was put into operation in September 2016, this SPP claimed the first place. The total investment in the project is 47 billion Indian rupees, which at the current rate is almost 640 million US dollars.
The facility has 2.5 million solar panels, the electricity from which is enough for 750 thousand people. The panels are cleaned daily by robots, which themselves are also charged by solar energy.
Solar power plant Solar Star (in translation - a solar star). The largest solar power plant in the USA.
Location: California, USA.
Area of the object: about 13 sq. km.
Generation capacity - 580 MW.
The construction of the solar power plant began in 2013 and was completed in 2015. The facility has 1.7 million solar panels, which are able to provide electricity to approximately 255,000 households. With the help of this and other projects, the California authorities plan to completely transfer the state to alternative energy by 2045.
The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park solar power plant is the largest solar power plant under construction in the world.
Location: United Arab Emirates, about 50 km south of Dubai.
Planned area of the object: 77 sq. km.
The planned generation capacity is 5 GW by 2030.
Although the current PV capacity of 213 MW looks pale compared to other solar power plants, it is the largest solar energy project underway in the world today. By 2020, the generation capacity should reach 1000 MW, and in another two decades it is planned to increase the figure to 5000 MW.
The solar park in the UAE will become not only the largest in terms of area and capacity. The highest solar tower-type power plant will be located on its territory. With a height of 260 m, it will be built in the fourth phase of the project and will add an additional 700 MW to the power plant.
Solar energy at night is no longer a fantasy, but a reality. At least in California, where it is planned to receive at least 33% of all energy from wind and solar in 5 years. The state is increasingly increasing the capacity of alternative energy sources with the goal of providing a third of electricity from them as early as 2020. It is not surprising that the world's greatest solar solar thermal power plant appeared here. At present, this station is no longer experimental - it is an ordinary operating power plant.
About 100 solar thermal stations have already been built around the world, and at least 50 more are expected. Some of them are able to provide electricity even at night. Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, a new solar power plant in California, supplies electricity to 140,000 homes. It is located in the Mojave Desert, no more than 3 hours east of Los Angeles. The station was built within 3 years, its cost amounted to 2 billion 200 million dollars. It generates clean energy from the sun. In this case, the combustion of any fuel is not required at all.
Interestingly, instead of the widely used solar panels, the Ivanpah Solar Electric station uses ordinary mirrors.
There are 173,000 such mirror modules, or heliostats, at the station. Each module is a system consisting of two large mirrors (each the size of a garage door).
Mirrors-heliostats reflect the rays of the sun to the tops of high towers, which are located in the center. Heliostats can rotate and due to this, the reflection of the sun's rays on the tops of the towers occurs continuously until the sun goes below the horizon.
At the top of the towers are boilers with a liquid that turns into steam when heated. The principle of their operation is the same as at an ordinary thermal power plant, only the water is heated here not by burning fuel, but by sunlight. The capacity of the Ivanpah Solar Electric station, which is 392 megawatts, is comparable to the capacity of an average Moscow thermal power plant.
Towers are built as high as possible (at least 148 meters), because the higher the tower, the more mirrors can be placed around it. In the middle of the day, boilers can heat up to over 700 degrees. The resulting steam flows down, rotating the turbine and thus generating electricity. This principle of generating electrical energy is called solar thermal.
Such a solar thermal station can operate even after sunset, thanks to the ability to store excess energy. To do this, a part of the heated liquid is pumped into special huge storage facilities, which is released from them after sunset. Thus, the rotation of the turbine continues, such storage at full capacity can ensure the operation of the turbines for 15 hours. Thanks to such thermal storage facilities, some geothermal stations can even operate around the clock. Ivanpah Solar Electric Station does not yet have these storage facilities, but the following video can be seen as an example. This example looks at a solar thermal plant located in Spain, with a detailed explanation of how it works.
During the construction of the station, its creators took care of environmental protection. After all, although the station itself is completely safe, its construction threatened the extinction of rare species of turtles that live in the desert. Therefore, a special program was developed, during which the station's owner company bought a large plot of land near the station, where about 200 unique turtles moved. The costs of relocating the rare inhabitants of the desert cost the company $22 million, including the purchase of land, the salaries of biologists and the actual relocation of turtles.
The transition to alternative energy sources in California can be called an alternative energy revolution without exaggeration. California's GDP is greater than the GDP of many countries in the world community. The value of this indicator is 2.2 trillion dollars, which is more than that of Russia, India, Canada, Italy, Spain or Australia, which are considered quite powerful countries. Therefore, California needs a lot of energy, and 33%, which by 2020 is planned to be received from alternative sources, is a huge amount. Analysts and the media have already announced the open era of alternative energy. And the fact that solar panels in California are already sold in brick-and-mortar stores and are rapidly depreciating only confirms this statement. According to TIME magazine, at least one American home switches to solar energy from rooftop panels every 3 minutes. And over time, this dynamic only increases. The US government ensures the development of alternative energy in every possible way. Ordinary people are given interest-free loans for solar panels, and large companies are required to buy alternative energy in accordance with prudently issued laws. Thanks to the gradual launch of more solar power plants in the United States, the amount of harmful emissions here is gradually decreasing: since 2005 they have already decreased by 17%. Ivanpah Solar is one of the 7 largest solar power plants that have been commissioned in California in recent years. The launch of each such station is equivalent to the disappearance of at least 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. This is comparable to the disappearance of 77,000 polluting vehicles from the roads at once.
In this beautiful video, you can see the views of the solar station against the backdrop of Los Angeles at night, receiving absolutely clean energy from it.
The Ivanpah(full title Solar Electric Generating System) is located in California in the Mojave Desert, 64 km southwest of the famous city of Las Vegas in the United States.
mojave a fairly large desert, with an area of over 35,000 km². That's where Death Valley is.
In summer, the temperature there can rise above 54 °C in lowland areas. It was this place that was chosen for the construction of the largest solar thermal power plant.
The power plant capacity is 392 MW. This is achieved by 173.5 thousand heliostats ( a heliostat is a device that automatically rotates a mirror so as to direct the sun's rays constantly in one direction, despite the apparent daily movement of the sun ), each of which has two mirrors that direct solar energy to boilers located on three central 140-meter towers. Thus, the total number of mirrors at the power plant is 347,000! The area of one mirror is 7 sq. m., for a total of 14 sq. m. per heliostat.
General view of the Ivanpah power plant. It covers an area of 14.2 square kilometers of the Mojave Desert near the border of California and Nevada.
The project started in 2007. Construction officially began on October 27, 2010 - and by no one else, but at that time, the Governor of California Arnold om Schwarzenegger ohm.
The first phase was connected to the network in September 2013 for testing.
The power plant was officially opened February 13, 2014. And now it is the world's largest solar thermal power plant.
The total area of the object is14.2 sq. km.
In total, this system, owned by NRG Energy, Google and BrightSource Energy, provides electricity to 140,000 private households in California.
The power plant was built by BrightSource Energy and Bechtel at a cost of US$2.18 billion.
The project received a $1.6 billion loan guaranteed by the US Department of Energy.
The largest investor in the project was the energy company NRG Energy. Google also contributed financially to the project.
Video about the construction of a large-scale structure
Source: http://www.ivanpahsolar.com/
Now Ivanpah accounts for 30%
of all electricity generated by solar power plants in the United States.
The operation of the power plant is supported by 86 operators and service personnel.
The LPT 550 power tower generates electricity in the same way as traditional power plants - by generating high temperature steam to turn on the turbine.
The installation consists of fields heliostatic mirrors, guides sunlight on water tanks located on the central power solar towers. generated in tanks steam that spins special turbines Siemens SST-900.
During operation, the tanks glow very brightly.
At the site, light is focused by mirrors on three 140-meter towers, which are heated to 540 degrees, due to which the water inside them turns into superheated steam. Power generators run on this steam.
The environmental friendliness of the project allows avoiding the emission of 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, which corresponds to the emissions of 72,000 cars.
Simplified diagram of the power plant
Solar energy is often criticized as having a number of disadvantages compared to traditional forms such as coal, oil and gas. But there is no doubt that many countries with the largest economies are actively developing this direction.
If the current growth rates of the sector continue, then by 2020 about 10% of the world's electricity could be generated by photovoltaic systems. The main growth is expected in China, Japan, Germany and the USA.
Much of this electricity is generated by large-scale ground installations, or solar farms, which are thousands of photovoltaic panels in several miles of desert. Apparently, they symbolize the future of alternative energy.
It is these systems that make it possible to produce electricity from solar energy on an industrial scale. They even look more like solar cities than solar farms.
1. Sambhar Lake (Lake Sambhar), India
- Company: consortium of 6 state-owned companies including Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd., Power Grid Corp of India, Hindustan Salts
- Power: 4000 MW
The new solar power plant in India, which will be built 70 km from Jaipur, will have 8 times more capacity than the largest US solar farms.
The project is valued at $4 billion and will symbolize the potential of solar energy in India. However, it is currently on hold due to conflicts over land use between the state and federal governments.
2. Topaz, California, USA
- Company: MidAmerican Solar
- Power: 580 MW
It took 2 years and $2.5 billion to build the facility. The last stage was completed in December last year.
The total number of solar panels located on an area of 9.5 square meters. miles exceeds 9 million.
There is enough capacity to provide access to electricity in most of the city of San Luis Obispo, which has a population of 276 thousand people.
3. Solar Star, California
- Company: MidAmerican Solar, SunPower Corp.
- Power: 579 MW
The construction of this power plant began in 2013 and should be completed this year.
When completed, the number of panels will be 1.7 million, but already now the power plant provides more than 170 MW of power.
4 Ivanpah, California
- Company: NRG Energy, BrightSource Energy, Google
- Power: 392 MW.
The power plant was opened almost two years ago. It is located on 5 sq. miles in the Mojave Desert, near the Nevada border.
The total number of panels reaches 300,000, and the capacity of the facility is enough to provide electricity to 140,000 homes.
Nevertheless, the project has been criticized more than once for the fact that during its creation the habitual habitat of many animals was destroyed, and birds flying too close to it very often die.
5. Agua Caliente, Arizona
- Company: NRG Energy, MidAmerican Solar
- Power: 290 MW
Agua Caliente was launched in April last year and at that time claimed the title of the world's largest solar farm.
The capacity is enough to power 230,000 homes in the region.
This solar farm was built with a guarantee loan of almost $1 billion from the US Department of Energy, along with capital from NRG Energy and the MidAmerican Solar - Energy Fund, which is owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.
6Setouchi, Japan
- Company: GE, Kuni Umi Asset Management, Toyo Engineering Corp.
- Power: 231 MW
A huge solar farm in Okayama Prefecture began construction last November. The cost of the project is estimated at $1.1 billion.
The consortium received $867 million in loans from Japanese banks, the largest amount in Japanese history for green energy projects.
Once completed, the facility, located on the site of the salt lake, will sell electricity to Chugoku Electric Power Company under a 20-year contract.
7Nzema Solar Park, Ghana
- Company: Mere Power Nzema Limited (MPNL)
- Power: 155 MW
Currently under construction. It will contain 630 thousand solar panels, which makes Nzema Solar Park the sixth in the world in this indicator.
It is noteworthy that electricity will be supplied not only to Ghana, but also to Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.
8. Redstone Solar Thermal Power Plant, South Africa
- Company: SolarReserve, International Company for Water and Power Projects (ACWA Power)
- Power: 100 MW
In January 2015, the South African Department of Energy gave SolarReserve and Saudi Arabian company AQUA Power preferred bidder status for a 100 MW solar power project.
The volume will be located close to the Jasper PV project, which is currently the largest in the country.
Redstone will supply power to 200,000 homes during peak periods while helping other providers.
9. Amanecer Solar CAP Plant, Chile
- Company: SunEdison
- Power: 100 MW
The power plant is located in the middle of the Atacama Desert and has an installed capacity of 100 MW, making it the largest solar power plant in Latin America. The station was opened in June last year.
The volume of investments in the installation of 310 thousand solar panels reached $250 million.
The capacity should be sufficient to provide for 125,000 Chilean households.
10. Jasper PV Project, South Africa
- Company: SolarReserve
- Power: 96 MW
The Jasper project produces about 180 megawatt-hours a year, enough to power 80,000 homes.
The project was completed in October last year.
Last week in California's Mojave Desert, a huge solar power plant, which fascinates with its beauty, officially began operation. The design capacity of the power plant is 400 megawatts, which, according to experts, will be enough for 140,000 homes in California. Let's find out more about her.
Experts emphasize that the new station will significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions: as if 72,000 cars were removed from the roads of California. In such "sunny" states as Arizona, Nevada, California and others, 17 sites have already been allocated for the construction of similar solar power plants.
At the same time, projects are being implemented more slowly than planned, encountering, oddly enough, protests from the "greens". The fact is that although in the long term such stations benefit the environment, in fact the construction of stations itself pollutes the areas allocated for them, depriving turtles and other representatives of the desert fauna of their usual habitats.
However, the US plans to become the world leader in the use of clean energy. Now it occupies no more than 1% of the total energy market in the country, but by 2020, according to the adopted state program, a third of the total energy produced should be transferred to renewable sources.
This station is the largest in the world, with an area of 14.24 square kilometers (5.5 square miles). This facility is called Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System. This station belongs to the type of thermal solar power plants.
This station is capable of producing about 30% of all "thermal energy" produced in the United States. The facility has 3 towers 140 meters high, surrounded by 300,000 mirrors the size of a garage door. All of these mirrors focus the sun's rays on a collector located at the top of the tower. In the upper part of the tower there is also a water reservoir, where all the thermal energy collected by the mirrors is directed.
Each tower has its own control center, plus there is a common control center from where the operation of the entire system is controlled. At the same time, according to the company that created the station, there is no storage for molten coolant salt in the system, as in the case of smaller projects such as Crescent Dunes.
It is worth noting that each of the mirrors can change the angle of inclination and the direction of inclination on command from the center. The mirrors are washed once every two weeks. As far as you can understand, a special mirror washing system is used + a special team of washers who clean the mirrors at night. To manage all the mirrors, a proprietary SFINCS (Solar Field Integrated Control System) system was created.
The whole system consists of 22 million individual parts (rivets, bolts, etc. do not count).
The total cost of the project was 2.2 billion US dollars, of which 1.4 is a federal loan.
At the same time, water vapor is generated in the system, directed to the blades of turbines that produce energy, which is quite enough for the needs of 140,000 California households.
True, it was not without problems. For example, focused sunlight burns birds flying over the station. This fact is the reason for the protests of US environmental organizations. But, despite all the protests, the project was completed and put into operation.
Finally, the design still has room to develop. BrightSource Energy engineers are already suggesting the elimination of water boilers and the use of special brine solutions to further increase the efficiency of the system while maintaining its environmental and energy qualities.
The station employs 86 employees. The estimated period of operation is 30 years, during which the station will provide electricity to 140,000 homes from the cities of the district.
