Colorado’s two largest utilities to explore solar power plant in New Mexico
Advocates say technology known as concentrating solar power could one day become a chief source of U.S. electricity.
By Steve Raabe, Denver Post Staff Writer /June 29, 2007
http://origin.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_6256331
Colorado’s two largest utilities have agreed to explore the development of a major solar-energy power plant in New Mexico. Xcel Energy and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association will join several other power companies and the Electric Power Research Institute to study what could become one of the nation’s largest plants using solar heat to make electricity.
Unlike typical photovoltaic panels that convert sunlight directly to electricity, the proposed New Mexico project would use a technology known as solar thermal or concentrating solar power. The plant would use large mirrors to focus sunlight on vessels containing water or other fluids. The heated fluids would produce steam to spin turbine generators, similar to the way coal-fired power plants use steam to make electricity.
Advocates of concentrating solar power say the technology could one day supplant coal- and natural-gas- fired power plants as the nation’s chief source of electricity. “It’s absolutely clean power,” said John Czingula, the Denver-based founder of solar-plant developer Solargenix Energy. “Even the water we use is recycled.”
Despite its current higher costs than gas and coal, solar thermal is being used at a 354-megawatt power plant in California’s Mojave Desert and at smaller facilities in Arizona and Nevada. Photovoltaic arrays cost roughly 20 to 24 cents per kilowatt hour, compared with 13 to 16 cents for concentrating solar power, according to the Golden-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Natural-gas power costs an average of 8 to 10 cents, while coal runs about 4 cents.
The $400,000 study, spearheaded by Public Service Co. of New Mexico, will gauge the feasibility of building a solar plant that would produce 50 to 500 megawatts of power. The plant could be built by 2010.
Officials of Xcel and Tri- State said building the facility and purchasing power from it could help them meet renewable-energy mandates in Colorado and New Mexico. “We’re making a concerted effort to meet our growing demand for energy with a balanced approach,” Tri- State’s Jim Van Someren said. “We still have plans to invest in coal-fired technology, but we are doing our best to incorporate all types of resources.”
Tri-State earlier this year said it plans to build a major new coal-fired plant in western Kansas but also said it was suspending or slowing development of two other plants in Colorado and Kansas while it explores other options.
“It makes sense for us to pool our resources with other utilities for potential projects further down the road,” Xcel spokesman Mark Stutz said.
Shares of Applied Materials closed the regular session down 15 cents and were off an additional 8 cents at $19.65 in extended trading.