CSP World

In a document filed with the California Energy Commission (CEC), Beacon Solar, a fully owned subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, requests that the Commission License for the Beacon Solar Energy Project be terminated.

The project, which had received the CEC approval in August 2010, was planned to be a 250 MW parabolic trough plant to be built near California City in the Kern County.

Despite the CEC approval, the company looked to the photovoltaic technology as an alternative to the CSP plant. "Beacon Solar has obtained a Conditional Use Permit from the Kern County Planning and Comunity Development Department and other necessary permits form relevant agencies to develop a 250 MW PV project, known as the Beacon Photovoltaic Project, on the same site as the BSEP", the letter says. An Environmental Impact Report for the new Beacon PV project has been prepared and certified by Kern County.

This not the first CSP project to move to PV due to a dramatically cost reduction seen in the PV sector and a better bankability for these ones. Many times, the CSP and PV projects are compared directly, but, the fact is this is a wrong approach. While CSP is a relatively easy to forecast, firm and stable source of electricity, PV, as well as Wind, cannot achieve this goals as their production is, to a great extent, intermittent.

Some recently released reports, available at our CSP Library, have proven that CSP, with thermal energy storage, is a more valuable source of energy than other renewable and even non-renewable sources. Unfortunately, not all of the CSP projects in the US are taking the advantage of energy storage, this is the case of Beacon.

NextEra is currently building the Genesis Solar CSP plant, a 250 MW parabolic trough plant near Blythe and operates seven of the SEGS plants and the Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center in Florida.