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In the US State of Nevada, energy and environmental engineering firm Solargenix Energy
is developing a significant solar power plant, one of the largest built worldwide in the last
15 years. The plant adds important capacity to state utilities obligation to increase power
generation from renewable sources. Using parabolic trough technology, the electricity
will be produced by a 72-megawatt (MW) Siemens steam turbine-generator.
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Twenty miles from the bright lights, big city attraction of Fabulous
Las Vegas is the quieter and more relaxed Boulder City. Originally
created in the 1930s as a home to the construction workers that
built the nearby Hoover Dam, Boulder is the city with the largest
geographical area in Nevada. Curiously, it is also the only city in
the state with no gaming.
In keeping with that tradition, exploiting the potential for solar
power generation on ideal terrain and climate is anything but a
gamble for the city. In fact, in these environmentally conscious
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Put simply, the plant uses solar parabolic trough technology to reflect the suns heat onto oil-filled reception pipes running through
the mirror collectors. The synthetic oil is passed to heat exchangers
on the power island, which transfer the heat to generate steam for
the turbine.
In 1997, the State of Nevada adopted a Renewable Portfolio Standard that placed a mandate on the two utilities Nevada Power and
Sierra Pacific Powerto use renewable energy to provide a minimum percentage of electricity consumption. A revision to that state
law in 2001 meant that this amount should increase by 2 percent
every two years. Each phase can be broken down as thus: 7 percent
in 2005, 9 percent in 2007, up to 15 percent by 2013. A further
amendment in 2005 saw the obligation rise to 3 percent every two
years culminating in a 20 percent share for renewable energy
generation by 2015. Investment in energy efficiency measures was
also added to that renewable portfolio standard.
A crucial part of the legislation expands the states commitment to
solar power so that the technology provides 5 percent of renewable
energy projects. The Nevada Solar One project currently under construction will go some way to supporting that ideal. In addition, the
US Department of Energy (DoE) has issued a report that identifies
suitable land and solar resources in Nevada that could produce
over 600,000 MW of electricity using concentrating solar technologies. Currently, Nevadas power consumption is less than 3 percent
of this resource capacity. The DoE report also claims that the economic benefits far exceed the cost to develop this clean renewable
energy source.
ELDORADO VALLEY
On a 400-acre site in Boulder Citys Eldorado Valleyjust off the
Route 93 highway linking Las Vegas and Phoenix is a solar power
complex that, once complete will be the third largest in the world.
Solargenix Energy, Inc, a leading energy and environmental engineering company headquartered in North Carolina, is developing
Nevada Solar One. Earlier this year, the Spanish renewable energy
firm ACCIONA Energa S. A. purchased 55 percent of Solargenix.
It is the skill, engineering and solar know-how of Solargenix and
ACCIONA that drives the scheme, with more than a little help from
the prime mover of course a Siemens SST-700DRH industrial
steam turbine-generator.
The first stone for Nevada Solar One was laid at a special ceremony
in February this year. This followed a long period of gaining planning permission and securing financing and tax incentives from
the Nevada Commission on Economic Development. In September
2005, Solargenix announced the approval of amendments to their
power purchase agreements with Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific
POWER ISLAND
For the power island, Solargenix awarded a contract to market-leading Siemens Power Generation in August 2005 for a high efficiency
direct reheat SST-PAC-700RH steam-turbine generator set. The contract has also included stand-alone Simatic S7 control systems and
installation and commissioning support plus staff training. The
72-MW SST-700 turbine has been manufactured at Siemens facility
in Finspong, Sweden. It is a dual-cased geared engine using one
high pressure (HP) and one low pressure (LP) module. The steam
turbine was delivered to site mid November, and the plant itself
should be commissioned in April 2007.
Steam is generated via the heat exchangers at 700F/1,250 psia.
After passing through the HP turbine it is taken back into the steam
generator for reheating and bringing LP steam up to 700F again.
This will further reduce the oil temperature back to the solar collectors and improve the overall cycle efficiency of the plant.
The reheated steam is now admitted into the LP turbine to further
generate power; it then enters a vacuum condenser where remaining steam is condensed to be pumped back into the steam generator again. This careful use of water is vitally important considering
the desert location and value of water sources. It has also been a
consideration for the plants cooling towers. But Solargenix is justifiably proud of the fact that the plant has no water discharge.
Supplementing the heat cycle is a small, natural-gas-fired auxiliary
boiler, which will be used at times when the suns radiation is not
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available, or during cleaning of the solar mirrors. The cycling capability of the plant is significant when dealing with likely variables
in steam temperature and pressure.
The steam turbine is coupled to a generator, which produces electricity at 13.8 kilovolt (kV), 60 Hz. Power is then stepped up by a
transformer, to be distributed to the grid at 230 kV from the huge
switchyard. With a separate (and unconnected) combined-cycle
power plant adjacent to the solar plant this section of the desert is
a curious mixture of bush land and a sea of transmission towers.
IMPRESSIVE
WILDLIFE
Of course, working with this terrain has been another interesting
aspect of the project groundwork. With a rocky, uneven surface, not
to mention shrub and bush land, clearing 400 acres is a considerable task. And there have been other factors to take into account.
Despite the harsh environment, there is wildlife that adapts to its
surroundings and survives in the desert. On the road down to the
site it is not uncommon for roadrunners to dart across the tarmac.
But not all creatures great and small are particularly friendly. As
a Solargenix official confirms, during the ground clearance opera-
To give some idea of the scale of the plant, from the sites overall
area of 400 acres, 251 are taken up by the solar array system. At a
distance (and again we come to the sheer expanse of the Nevada
desert) the plant looks like a small, flat, white mass. When the site
draws closer its enormity is jaw-dropping; hundreds of huge CSP
troughs with crystal clear mirrors reflecting the desert with a burst
of deep blue and sandy brown colours. It is immensely impressive.
As is the steam turbine solution that Siemens has provided for what
was originally a tricky conundrum for the heat cycle of the Nevada
Solar One plant. Producing a quality, proven product at low investment and life-cycle cost and one that has been manufactured,
shipped and installed to meet customer commitments for on-time
delivery, power output and availability is further testimony to
Siemens solutions for every turbine application.
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Covering a total area about two-and-a-half times the size of Germany, Venezuela is located on the northern tropical Caribbean
coast of South America. The diversity and sheer beauty of its landscape so impressed the fifteenth century explorer Christopher
Columbus that he called it the Tierra de Gracia Land of Grace
which has become the countrys unofficial name. In contrast to its
soaring mountains, the worlds highest waterfall, tropical forests
and silver-sandy beaches which make Venezuela a magnet for
tourists, the countrys burgeoning economy is based principally
on the oil and gas industry.
BIG OIL
With proven oil reserves of around 76 billion barrels, Venezuela is
ranked as one of the worlds largest producers. However, a number
of the largest fields have been exploited for decades, with some of
the oldest wells in continuous operation for almost 100 years, and
production levels are now falling rapidly. Natural gas, co-produced
with oil from existing wells as well as from more recent finds both
onshore and offshore, is also currently being produced at an annual
rate of nearly 30 billion cubic meters, a large proportion of which is
being re-injected into fast-depleting oil reservoirs to increase their
production. In combination, this vital industrial sector accounts for
some eighty percent of the countrys export revenues and about a
third of its total earnings.
depth of about 1.2 meters in a 20-meter wide corridor, the line will
snake its way across the coastal plain, avoiding the most mountainous terrain, following a precisely planned path selected as the most
favorable from no less than 14 other routes originally surveyed in
the late 80s. Although designed to pass close to towns and centers
of population to provide these widely scattered communities with
gas supplies for the first time, the route of the ICO pipeline also cuts
through some of Venezuelas most environmentally sensitive
and internationally important areas, which are home to rare plant
species, unique wildlife and archaeological sites. In consequence,
consent for construction has only been granted by the Venezuelan
government after the most rigorous scientific and ecological studies, covering the projects impact on every aspect of local environments, with continuous inspections and environmental audits on
every centimeter of the route as work progresses.
As well as routing the pipeline unavoidably through a number of
archaeological sites revealing pre-Colombian discoveries currently
being studied by experts from around the world, the construction
crews have to contend with engineering a total of eighteen separate
river-crossings, many of which are in tropical rainforest environ-
ments. Using conventional technologies, taking even large-diameter pipelines across rivers does not present a significant problem.
However, official planning restrictions imposed by the Venezuelan
government to protect the delicate environmental balance in these
sensitive locations, prohibit any form of damage to all riverbank
environments, requiring the design and use by the contractors of
special-purpose systems, equipment and machines. The route also
crosses the Morrocoy National Park, necessitating a major detour
in order to follow an existing service corridor through the park,
used as the least-damaging transit route for power lines and a water pipeline.
PERFORMING UNDER PRESSURE
Representing one of the largest contract awards made by the stateowned company in recent years, the three compressor stations
along the ICO pipeline will house a total of ten compressor trains
supplied and installed by Siemens. These comprise STC-SV compressors supplied from the Duisburg plant, powered by 13.4-megawatt (MW) SGT-400 gas turbines built at the Lincoln factory in
the UK. Six of the compressor trains are being supplied as high pressure units and four as low pressure trains, with all equipment
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IMPROVING LIVES
Although Venezuelas investment in the ICO pipeline is intended to
boost the national economy through increased oil and gas production, the vast, long-distance construction project is also aimed at
providing major social improvements for the
widely scattered, mainly rural communities affected by the project. In line with the governments demand that no less than ten percent of the
entire project value must be returned to the communities involved, PdVSA is not only ensuring that
gas will become available as a low-cost fuel for a
large number of people for the very first time, but
is undertaking a far-reaching social initiative affecting communities along the whole length of the
pipeline. This is the nicest and most exciting part
of this project, says PdVSA Project Manager
Richard Tahan. We are now able to improve the