I know, I know. All our heart goes out to distributed solar,
but utility-scale solar installations in the United States are very
much alive and kicking. In fact, of the 6 GW of new solar capacity added
in the US during 2014, 63% of it came from utility-scale plants. This included two mammoth projects — Topaz Solar and Desert Sunlight — 550 MW each, both developed by First Solar. However, both of these plants could not, as the phrase goes, “bask in the sunshine” even for a year (actually not even seven months).
The Solar Star solar power plant, with a total capacity of 579 MW, went fully online on June 19, 2015, as per the California Independent System Operator (CAISO). For now, it is the largest solar power plant in the world, with a lead of 29 MW over its closest competitors.
BHE Solar, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy (known as
MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company until 2014, one of the investment
arms of Warren Buffet) owns the projects. SunPower Corporation, which is
the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor for Solar
Star, will also cater to its operations and maintenance.
Our regular readers would be aware that BHE also owns the Topaz Solar plant. The electricity produced by Solar Star is being purchased by the
utility Southern California Edison under a long-term power purchase
agreement (PPA). The specifics of the agreement haven’t been publicly
disclosed. Quite interestingly, at the moment, the world’s three largest solar
plants — Solar Star, Desert Sunlight, and the Topaz project — are all
located in California, USA.
Solar Star Project Layout
Solar Star, which was formerly called Antelope Valley Solar Projects,
is actually two projects — Solar Star 1 and Solar Star 2 — co-located
in Kern and Los Angeles Counties in California, USA. Installed across
3,230 acres, the projects employ 1.7 million SunPower monocrystalline
silicon PV panels.
The construction for the project started in January 2013, and was
scheduled for completion towards the end of 2015, so it’s quite a feat
that they could manage to wrap up 6 months ahead of schedule!
The Solar Star Projects will deliver enough electricity to power
the equivalent of approximately 255,000 homes. The projects have also
created approximately 650 construction jobs over a 3-year construction
period. In addition to this, up to 40 operations and maintenance jobs,
including 15 full-time site positions, will be created during the life
of the project. In terms of emissions, more than 570,000 tons of carbon dioxide will
be avoided annually — the equivalent of removing over 2 million cars
from the road over 20 years (source).
Solar Star Satellite View
The plant is built on what SunPower calls “Oasis Power Plant”
technology. Essentially, to cash in on the large-scale plant (and thus,
the opportunity), a modular design is used for rapid deployment. Per
the company, this helps save money, time, and land resources as well. Each 1 MW “power block” integrates SunPower Trackers with SunPower
solar panels, pre-manufactured system cabling, an inverter, and a power
plant operating system. The power block kits are shipped pre-assembled
to the job site for rapid field installation.
Since cleaning such a large facility would otherwise consume a lot of
water, and time, SunPower has automated the process. This, the company
claims, will consume 90% less water and is 4 times faster than manual
cleaning methods (more information here). The projects also employ SunPower C1 Trackers (single-axis), which
are said to boost annual energy yield by 25% as against fixed-tilt
systems. The tracker uses a single motor to control many rows.
According to data released by the Solar Energy Industries Association
and GTM Research over the 2014 performance of the US solar market, the
utility PV segment is becoming more competitive. The report points out
that more than 4 GW of centralized PV capacity had been procured by
utilities based on solar’s competitiveness with natural-gas alternatives.
2015 is expected to be another good year for utility-scale solar in
the US. However, there are concerns that the aggregate net energy
metering (NEM) capacity limit in California could be reached by the last
quarter of 2015 or early 2016. As a result, installers are pushing to
expedite sales through the first half of 2015.
Once the cap is reached, the next version of NEM is scheduled to take
effect — although, decisions regarding NEM rule revisions could be
announced by the CPUC as late as December 2015. So, which would be the next plant to clinch the title? There are a few probables in the runup – here, here, and here), but your guess is as good as mine. Want to know what 579 MW of solar awesomeness looks like? Open up Google maps on this link and see it for yourself!
Photo Credits: Solar Star Project Layout via SunPower, Solar Star Satellite View via Google Maps
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/06/26/largest-solar-plant-planet-earth-solar-star-comes-online/