Why solar energy?
Abengoa Solar is convinced that solar energy can contribute significantly to addressing the current challenges in energy and climate change. There is a notable growing need for countries to reduce their emissions and achieve greater energy independence while facing these factors:
Increasing volatility in fossil fuel prices
Significant increase in energy demand and CO2 emissions in emerging countries
Decreased nuclear generation in the energy mix of developed and developing countries
To do this, Abengoa Solar is committed to solar thermal energy through the two commercially proven technologies:
Tower Technology
Trough Technology
Dispatchability
The most important factor that sets concentrating solar power apart from other forms of renewable energy generation is its dispatchability, or the ability to adapt production to the demand.
Dispatchability is considered essential, and perhaps the most valuable, for electricity systems. Having the ability to adjust energy generation to the demand curve has the benefit of being able to sell electricity to the grid at peak generation hours, with a resulting increase in price, and the ability to compensate for the effects of intermittent sources.
Solar thermal power is dispatchable because it has great thermal inertia that prevents it from ceasing to generate unexpectedly, due to the use of a small percentage of natural gas and thermal storage. In keeping with this, Abengoa Solar is building Solana, a 280 MW plant located in Arizona (USA) that will include six hours of molten salt storage capability.
Another advantage of CSP is that it is able to be combined with conventional power plants to form hybrid plants. Hybridization lowers dependency on conventional fuel and cuts CO2 emissions from natural gas and coal-fueled generating plants.
Abengoa Solar also has extensive experience in designing, building, operating and maintaining hybrid solar-gas plants. In Algeria, the 150 MW Hass-R´Mel plant has been operating since 2011 using that technology.
Commercially proven technology
With the first commercial plants in the U.S., CSP technology has been in use for over 30 years. Plants have improved over time and significant technological developments have led to cost reduction and higher efficiency. CSP is neither an experimental technology nor one undergoing testing, but rather a commercial solution that can be adapted to a variety of geographic locations. Photovoltaic technology, in turn, with 60 GW in operation and commercial plants in place since the 1980s, is at a turning point in development, having succeeded in matching the cost of conventional electrical power generation sources in a number of regions.
Energy security
Diversification in the energy mix is one of the most important elements in energy policy. One of the most important benefits of solar energy is that it lowers the dependency on oil, gas and uranium of countries that do not have these resources available to them.
Solar energy increases the proportion of renewable energy in the energy mix and, in the case of CSP, enhances system reliability as the result of its dispatchability. Additionally, solar energy helps offset the volatility of fossil fuels.
Local job creation
During the construction and subsequent operation and maintenance over the course of the useful life of solar power plants, between 4 and 5 temporary jobs will be created for each MW during project execution and between 1 and 2 permanent positions per MW during the operating period.
Depending on the number of projects, manufacturing supply chains may develop, in addition to the creation of R&D facilities in the surrounding area.