China Opens a Combined Solar Thermal and Biomass Power Plant

Written by Sabrina Deparine

Wednesday, 03 March 2010 10:09

Last Updated on Wednesday, 03 March 2010 10:40

Page views: 209

A partnership between China and the United States will soon bear fruit as its 2,000-megawatt concentrating solar power plant enters into a new phase. The said solar power plant will soon produce round-the-clock energy as it combines biomass energy with solar energy.

The power plant is located in Yulin, Shaanxi Province. It is the first solar thermal plant in China that collects solar energy through the use of heliostats, a field of mirrors that focuses the rays of the sun on a water-filled receiver. The plant will then produce energy from the turbines. These turbines are run by high-pressure steams from water vaporization. By far, the only downside of this project was it can only generate energy on day time since there are no sun rays to capture at night.

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Image source: http://media.photobucket.com/image/biomass%20power%20plant/terryhallinan/biomass_cs.jpg and http://davidweikel.com/E20_Page/alienbees/open_box2_800.jpg

However, this will soon change as plans to integrate biomass power from adjacent biomass facilities begin to unfold. The adoption of biomass power will allow the power plant to generate electricity even at night time.

According to California-based eSolar and Shandong Penglai Electric Power, they are expecting the first 92-megawatt biomass power plant to be running by the end of next year. The rest of the solar thermal power plant, on the other hand, is scheduled to be completed by 2020.

According to Raed Sherif, eSolar’s Vice President for International market Development, the modular design of the power plant will also contribute to higher efficiency and reduced costs. His Penglai counterpart, Eric Wang agrees to this, adding that the collaboration between the two companies capitalizes mainly on the strength of China’s manufacturing sector and the unique ideas and technologies of eSolar. Together, they are able to make significant reductions in the installation and solar field equipment costs, two of the largest expenditures for solar power plants.

Hopefully, this joint project which combined solar and biomass technologies will eventually allow solar power to compete more effectively with other renewable energy sources, even without subsidies from the government.