CSP World

First glints over Ivanpah Concentrated Solar Power plant have been seen in the last days. A sign that everything goes ahead towards the forthcoming completion of the plant.

On February 27, a major milestone was achieved. According to project developer, BrightSource, at 3:55 pm, more than one thousand heliostats focused onto the Ivanpah Unit 1 solar receiver, creating the "firtst flux". The solar flux is created when a significant amount of sunlight is reflected off of the solar field.

With this first flux, the water inside the solar boiler was heated slowly up to below the point of steam generation. In previous tests, only 5 to 10 heliostats had been focused to the tower for calibration purposes.

“First flux is a very important milestone for the project and the solar field team is very proud,” said Gil Kroyzer, VP Modeling & Solar Field Design, BrightSource Energy, the technology provider for the Ivanpah project. “We are now focused on reaching the point where we can place a full load of heliostats onto the boiler and push the project towards commercial operation.” Over the course of the next month, the team will place additional flux on the boiler and begin producing steam to test the steam pressure. When a certain level of pressure is reached, the system will be ready for steam blows to clear out any debris inside the pipes so that it does not damage the steam turbine once operational.

It's worth noting that this is world's first truly large-scale tower plant, since for now, the rest of operating plants have not surpasses 20 MW. In the case of Ivanpah, there are three towers, with a single output power of up to 130 MW, that is 6.5 times larger than previous projects.

“First flux essentially demonstrates operational readiness of the project” said Mike Bobinecz, VP Construction Management, BrightSource Energy. “After years of planning, engineering, manufacturing and construction, we are entering the final stage of start-up of the equipment and systems. This represents a great achievement for the project and all of our partners.” The 377 MW Ivanpah project is owned by NRG Energy, Google and BrightSource Energy and is being constructed by Bechtel Corporation.