Image Credit: dherrera_96/Flickr
The largest High Concentration Solar Photovoltaic (HCPV) power generation plant in the world has begun commercial operations in Colorado, reports GreenTechMedia. The massive 30-megawatt Alamosa Solar Generating Project will be providing power for customers of Xcel Energy’s subsidiary Public Service Company of Colorado, which serves residents of Denver and the surrounding rural areas.
Developer and energy company Cogentrix, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., received a $90.6 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy in September 2011 as part of the DOE’s $30 billion loan program supporting 28 different clean energy projects across the country.
Spread out over 225 sunny acres of the San Luis Valley in Alamosa County, the solar system consists of over 500 pedestal-mounted tracker assemblies which rotate and tilt to follow the angle of the sun and optimize solar exposure. Each of these assemblies hold 7,560 Fresnel lenses that concentrate sunlight by 500x onto multijunction, or tandem, solar cells. These multijunction cells are different from single junction cells in that they use two or more stacked cells to capture more of the light spectrum to efficiently generate electricity. Each tracker is 70 feet wide by 50 feet high and produces 60 kW of electricity. All combined, the system is expected to provide enough power for 6,500 homes while offsetting 43,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
Seems every week or so a new solar plant gets the title of “the largest solar system” and grabs headlines. While Cogentrix’s plant will be the largest HCPV plant in the world for at least a little bit, Saudi Arabia is busy planning a solar project capable of generating 41,000 megawatts of power. This game of one-upmanship will end up benefiting us all in the long run and will supply us with clean, renewable energy from the sun.
[via GreenTechMedia]