Nevada

A New Chapter Begins for Concentrated Solar Power This weekend, in the Desert outside Las Vegas, a major milestone was reached for renewable energy that could represent a shift in how the fastest growing region in the U.S. get its energy. Hundreds of people from around the world were on hand in Boulder City, Nevada, to commemorate the groundbreaking for the beginning of construction on the first Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) energy project in the U.S. in more than 15 years.

"If we want to get serious about reducing carbon dioxide emissions and lower our use of fossil fuels, this is a way to quickly address that. I'm very optimistic about this technology." -- Chuck Kutscher, Principal Engineer and Group Manager of the Thermal Systems Group at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Called Nevada Solar One, the 64 MW commercial-scale solar energy plant will encompass 350 square acres, a nearly endless sea of mirrored troughs that will concentrate the strong desert sunlight and convert it into 750-degree F thermal energy, which

can

then

be

used

to

create

steam

for

electrical

power

generation.

A combination of state policies and support from both the Governor and the legislature, steady advances in this type of technology, all coupled with skyrocketing energy costs have

helped

make

this

unique

project

a

reality.

"Nevada has proven to be very forward thinking in promoting solar and other renewables," said Solargenix President John Myles. "The main factor here is that you can get very large blocks of power coming from solar energy in one single location. It is very

clearly

the

lowest

cost

solar

energy

that

can

be

produced

today."

The project is designed and led by Solargenix Energy, based in North Carolina, but involves a host of companies from around the world. The groundbreaking this weekend also made official a partnership between Solargenix and Spain's renewable energy giant, the Acciona Group, which has acquired a 55 percent interest in the commercial power

plant

division

of

Solargenix.

Gilbert Cohen, Vice President of Engineering & Operations for Solargenix, said the project costs somewhere in the range of $220-250 million. He said the power is slightly more expensive than wind power, but less than photovoltaic (PV) power, more commonly used in small rooftop projects on homes or businesses. Other sources close to the project put this price at somewhere between 9-13 cents per kWh. As more are built, however, and they're scaled up even bigger, Cohen says a target of seven cents per

The

kWh

will

Nuts

not

and

be

difficult

Bolts

to

reach

of

in

the

Nevada

near

Solar

future.

One

Germany's glass specialists, Schott -- a company familiar in the solar industry for their solar photovoltaic modules -- is one of the primary equipment suppliers. In its first large-scale solar thermal contract, Schott is providing more than 19,000 of their latest vacuum tube steel and glass receivers, which in many ways can be considered the heart of the project. It is these receiver tubes that the parabolic mirrors focus the sun's energy on and they, in turn, absorb the solar radiation. Flabeg, also a German company, will provide the mirror panels or troughs while industrial giant Siemens of

Sweden

will

provide

the

75

MW

turbine.

Many other companies are involved in other aspects of hardware and construction, including the main construction contractor Houston-based EPC, Phoenix-based Hydro, which is building the aluminum tracking frames that hold the mirrors. Israel-based Solel is providing some backup receivers in case there are any supply issues with the Schott receivers, according to Cohen. In all, as many as 750 people will be involved in the construction

and

the

power

plant

will

have

a

full-time

staff

of

28.

Contrary to some press accounts, the project is not the largest of its kind in the world. Nor is it the first. There are, in fact, nine similar projects in the Mojave Desert in California -- two of them 80 MW in size -- that are operating above and beyond original expectations. According to experts involved in the project, however, there are subtle but significant changes made to this new version that will improve the overall efficiency

The older plants in the Mojave Desert, called SEGS, for Solar Electric Generating Stations, were different in a number of ways. Those plants required a 25 percent natural gas-fired backup to keep the heat transfer fluid temperature from fluctuating wildly. Nevada Solar One is designed to be more efficient in holding its temperature and requires only a 2 percent natural gas backup. More efficient and reliable motors will be used to move the troughs that track the sun. The frames for these troughs are now built

out

of

lightweight

aluminum

instead

of

galvanized

steel.

The receivers themselves are different as well. Christoph Fark, global manager for sales and marketing for Schott's solar thermal division, says the close to 19,000 receivers used in the project are the first commercial application of a new design from the company. The receivers must be designed to withstand the daytime highs of 750 degrees F and the lower temperatures at night. This can be particularly challenging to the seal between the outside glass tubing and the vacuum-packed steel receiver inside that holds the heat transfer fluid, a special synthetic oil. Fark explained how Schott invented a type of glass with the same thermal coefficient as steel so the two materials would

react

in

unison

to

the

constant

temperature

stresses.

These complex receivers are currently made in Germany but if CSP technology becomes a bigger player in the American Southwest, Fark suspects they could move some production

into

the

U.S.

"We see this as the beginning, we are involved in project discussion worldwide -- such as the southern parts of Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East," Fark said. "We hope the market picks up, and if so, then Schott is willing to invest in the production side in the U.S. This is our overall strategy, to be where the customer is. We believe the U.S.

market

offers

huge

potential

for

this

technology."

The Right Place at the Right Time On a broader scale, Nevada Solar One reflects a symbolic rekindling of this technology approach, one that many experts say is particularly well-suited for areas like the American Southwest where sunlight is abundant but energy is precious and increasingly strained by population growth. "This is a technology the utilities are comfortable with, it has proven reliability, it lends itself to economies of scale, there clearly is still some room for price reduction, and also it's a way to get large amounts of renewable energy deployed rapidly," said Chuck

Kutscher, Principal Engineer and Group Manager of the Thermal Systems Group at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. "If we want to get serious about reducing carbon dioxide emissions and lower our use of fossil fuels, this is a way to quickly address that. I'm very optimistic about this technology." A wide variety of factors have collided -- everything from politics to the marketplace -to make this project a reality. "After many years the time has come where we don't have to explain anymore the need for renewable energy, we don't have to explain the concerns about climate change, we don't have to explain the instability created by oil resources that belong to only a few countries when all countries are using these resources. Nor do we have to explain the instabilities to energy from disasters like hurricanes," said Alberto De Miguel, Acciona's Director of Corporate Development and Strategy. "Renewable energy is now accepted more than ever by the public." And that public acceptance is increasingly being turned into policy. Nevada is one of a growing number of states with a mandate that electric utilities, in this case Nevada Power Co. and Sierra Pacific Power Co., source a slowly escalating percentage of their power from renewable resources. Eventually the two utilities will have to reach 20 percent renewable energy use by 2015. The law also contains a so-called "solar cutout" that requires at least one-fourth of that power to come from solar energy. The project is projected to generate 130,000 MWh of power per year over the course of its decades-long lifetime. All of its electricity production will be sold to Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific Power under long-term power purchase agreements to help them meet this requirement. A Natural Fit for Tomorrow's Market While Nevada's policy played a very strong role in supporting this project, perhaps the next most influential factor is the natural gas market where prices have skyrocketed. This is at the core of why experts inside and outside of Solargenix believe CSP will play an increasingly important role in helping the rapidly growing American Southwest to meet its energy demands.

"There are fundamental differences in the electricity marketplace versus 15 years ago," said Rhone Resch, Executive Director of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), who was involved in the natural gas industry before joining SEIA. "Natural gas and peak power is incredibly expensive. Utilities are scrambling to find power generation sources that are reliable for peak power," Resch said. "Those changes are going to be what drives new plants like this. The beautiful thing with this project is that it offers firm, dispatchable peak power."

Resch said utilities and the ratepayers they serve made an investment in natural gas for the coming decades as a transition fuel but they are finding out now that it's too expensive to afford. The power plants are fine, but the energy commodity is becoming cost prohibitive and coal is often the next best option. This is relevant and fortuitous for CSP technologies because natural gas power plants are not fundamentally so different than a CSP plant. Just as today's fleet of natural gas plants uses a fossil fuel to create steam for a turbine, CSP plants like Nevada Solar One also create useable, commercialscale steam, except only from the sun's energy, a consistently free and available

resource. "Except for the troughs, everything else is a standard natural gas plant," said Scott Sklar, industry consultant with the Stella Group. "That's what Solargenix has always maintained, you're really buying a natural gas power block with solar attached. It can't be that risky, after all the old SEGS plants have been up and have operated close to flawless." In addition to the power plant side of the project being something the utilities and the traditional power industry is familiar with, Sklar said these types of projects can be easily deployed close to where the power is needed, unlike commercial wind power where the best wind resources are often not near where the power is needed. And while wind power may offer a slightly lower cost per watt than CSP, wind power generation is intermittent, whereas CSP offers consistent power all day long when energy demands are highest. "I dealt with this all the time, in the early days when Washington pundits and other people thought solar thermal would go nowhere," Sklar said. "Or they would say 'this stuff is great but it just isn't in sizes big enough to matter.' Well this is pretty substantive. It's exciting and I think it will create a whole revival towards concentrated solar power in the U.S." The project is scheduled to begin production of electricity in March of 2007 Concentrating Solar Power in Action The parabolic trough technology used in ACCIONA's Nevada Solar One™ plant represents a major renewable energy success story of the past two decades and has the potential to compete directly with conventional fossil fuel powered technologies. ACCIONA ’s 400-acre, 64 MW Nevada Solar One plant utilizes proprietary tracking technology to concentrate the sun’s rays and track the sun’s location during peak demand hours. The plant employs 760 parabolic concentrators with more than 180,000 mirrors that concentrate the sun’s rays onto 18,240 solar receiver tubes located on their focal line.

A mineral oil heat transfer fluid, which heats up to 735°F, flows through the receiver tubes and is used to produce steam and drive a conventional turbine connected to a generator that produces electricity. The plant produces enough energy to power more than 14,000 households annually. Technology •

Uses 760 parabolic concentrators and more than 180,000 mirrors that concentrate the suns rays onto 18,240 solar receivers o

The solar receivers heat a transfer fluid to 735° F, which passes through a heat exchanger, changing water into steam to drive a conventional turbine connected to a generator that produces electricity

o

Utilizes proprietary tracking technology to concentrate the sun’s rays and track the sun’s location during peak demand hours

Benefits Beyond Energy

ACCIONA is committed to sustainable development and

environmental

accountability.

Clean,

near

zero-CO2 energy production provides a necessary alternative

to

costly,

carbon-emitting

energy

production processes that strain the environment. While concentrating solar energy generates clean electricity, it also avoids the environmental costs of mining and pumping limited resources from the environment. Fuel extraction consumes massive amounts of energy and simultaneously creates environmental damage. Because solar resources are predictable and plentiful, we can put them to use while keeping the earth clean and healthy. Clean power •

Near zero-CO2 carbon emissions

•

Avoided carbon emissions are equal to the amount of carbon 20,000 autos emit annually

•

Energy is saved and pollution is avoided by not transporting or extracting fuels: no strip-mining, drilling, or trucking required

ACCIONA’s Nevada Solar One™ is Proving the Economic Benefits of Concentrating Solar Power ACCIONA’s Nevada Solar One™ plant has generated significant benefits for Boulder City, NV, in a number of ways including an increase in tax revenues from the operating plant, long-term land lease revenues and investments in community programs. The plant has also added considerable value to otherwise unusable desert land, since much of the land offering the best solar resources is inadequate for farming, grazing or habitation. Additionally, a significant number of jobs have been created, from the construction of Acciona’s Nevada Solar One plant to its day-to-day operations.

Reliable and feasible power generation

•

Generates clean, reliable and renewable power during peak demand, when it is needed most

•

Can be easily integrated into an existing power distribution network

Energy security •

Provides greater energy diversity options in the North American market

•

Electricity from concentrating solar energy is produced domestically and helps to reduce our dependency on unstable foreign energy sources

Economically competitive and cost-effective over time •

Produces electricity locally, providing manufacturing and installation jobs for Americans

•

Is scalable, predictable and commercially viable

Increases land value •

Much of the land offering the best solar resources is inadequate for farming, grazing or habitation

•

Concentrated solar power generation adds considerable value to otherwise unusable land

•

Land value is preserved by avoiding pollution and contamination of the land, air and water

•

The local area benefits from the plant’s tax dollars, land lease revenues and investment in community programs

•

The Time for Concentrating Solar Power is Now

•

ACCIONA Nevada Solar One™ is only the beginning of ACCIONA's commitment to invest in the clean tech sector and expand the availability of solar power in the United States. Ongoing improvements in technology, including new ways to build storage capacity will continue to expand the solar energy capacity in the United States. And as a committed leader in the clean energy movement, ACCIONA will be there to make the solar revolution a reality.

•

With 300+ gigawatts of solar energy potential available in the United States, there’s more than enough power to meet our nation’s energy needs - sustainably. But currently, solar power accounts for less than 1 percent of the energy consumed

domestically. Solar energy is an untapped resource that can transform the production of electricity in the Southwest. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that the potential for U.S. solar energy generation could eventually replace fossil-fired power plants, leading to a near-zero carbon grid within just a few decades. •

The Future, Responsibly An economic boom bigger and more powerful than the Internet boom of the 1990s is happening now, spurred by the widespread demand for renewable and clean energy technologies that enhance our security and protect our natural resources. Several factors are driving the growth of the clean tech sector.

•

Growing public concern about climate change and the health of our environment

•

Prices of fossil fuels and natural gas are volatile

•

Federal and state governments are supporting fuel diversity

•

Energy independence is a top national security concern

ACCIONA is at the vanguard in the development and implementation of renewable and clean energy technologies. Concentrating Solar Power ACCIONA's revolutionary Nevada Solar One concentrating solar power plant offers a win-win solution for all involved - the environment, communities, utilities, and consumers. Domestically produced clean energy reduces global warming, provides jobs for Americans, and supplies critical peak power at market-competitive prices. Concentraing solar power is protected against fuel price and availability fluctuations and can be easily integrated into an existing power distribution network. •

Nevada Solar One™ uses 760 parabolic concentrators and more than 180,000 mirrors that concentrate the sun’s rays onto 18,240 solar receivers.

•

The solar receivers heat a transfer fluid to 735° F, which passes through a heat exchanger, changing water into steam to drive a conventional turbine connected to a generator that produces electricity.

•

Utilizes proprietary tracking technology to concentrate the sun’s rays and track the sun’s location during peak demand hours.

SCHOTT has increased the efficiency and reliability of its new PTR 70 receivers by developing: •

New anti-reflective glass coatings: Previous glass coatings failed to adhere to solar receivers' borosilicate glass outer envelope tubes over time. SCHOTT has developed a new anti-reflective glass coating for its receivers that resists abrasion for years, while still allowing more than 96% of solar radiation to penetrate the receiver and heat the heat transfer fluid within.

•

New absorptive steel coatings: In order to achieve peak efficiency the steel absorber tube located inside the outer glass envelope tube needs to absorb as much solar radiation as possible while releasing as little heat as possible. SCHOTT's new

absorptive steel coating improves radiation absorption rates to 95%, while helping ensure that no more than 14% of the heat from the steel tube is released. •

Improved glass-to-metal seals: In other solar thermal receivers, differences in the thermal expansion of the inner steel tube and the outer glass envelope tube resulted in tube failure when there were severe shifts in temperature. The new PTR 70 receiver uses a new borosilicate glass with the same thermal expansion coefficient as steel. The result is a receiver that can handle the changes in temperature that occur as coolNevada desert nights quickly become hot desert days. This improvement was designed to reduce both maintenance time and the need for replacement parts.

•

A more efficient design: In order to maximize the energy captured by the receiver, as much of the receiver as possible needs to be used to heat the HTF that flows within. By positioning the receiver's bellows on top of its glass-to-metal seals, SCHOTT has been able to expand the percentage of the length of the tube used to capture solar radiation to 96%. An independent study by the German Aerospace Center on the new PTR 70 tubes at the Plataforma Solar de Almeria testing site in southern Spain has shown that this new design improves the receivers' overall efficiency by 2% over previous models and competitive products.

"Even a small increase in a solar thermal power plant's efficiency and reliability can result in a large increase in kilowatt hours of electricity generated or a significant reduction in plant downtime or maintenance hours," said Alex Marker, SCHOTT Solar Thermal Research Fellow. "The advancements that SCHOTT has made in solar receivertechnology will enable Nevada Solar One to spend less money to make more electricity, benefiting the plant's owner Solargenix, the plant's utility customers, and ultimately Nevada's energy consumers."

About SCHOTT: SCHOTT is a technology-driven, international group that sees its core purpose as the lasting improvement of living and working conditionsthrough special materials and high-tech solutions. Its main areas of focus are the household appliance industry, pharmaceutical packaging, optics and opto-electronics, information technology, consumer

electronics,

lighting,

automotive

engineering

and

solar

energy.

SCHOTT has a presence in close proximity to its customers through highly efficient production and sales companies in all of its major markets. It has more than 17,000 employees producing worldwide sales of approximately $2 billion. In North America,

SCHOTT'sholding companies SCHOTT Corporation and its subsidiary SCHOTT North America, Inc.

employ

about

2,500

people

in

16

operations.

The company's technological and economic expertise is closely linked with its social and ecological

responsibilities.

SCHOTT is one of the leading solar industry companies worldwide. The international technology group supplies components for almostall photovoltaic and solar thermal applications. PV solar electricitymodules with various performance ratings are used for decentralized power generation. Receivers are the key components in solar thermal parabolic trough power plants, a future technology for centralized power generation along the Earth's sunbelt.