New solar energy technology comes on line in Hawaii

From solar.coolerplanet.com

Solar energy through solar-thermal technology is not new, but it has not been adopted on a micro scale until now.

Sopogy, the designer of a concentrating solar power system called MicroCSP, announced this week that it has built the world’s first small-scale solar-thermal plant on the Hawaiian island of Kona.

Sopogy’s technology is similar to that used in massive solar-thermal installations that occupy thousands of acres of land. Those systems use mirrors to concentrate the sun’s rays on a central tower that contains fluid; the fluid is heated and steam can be generated to spin a turbine that generates electricity. But the MicroCSP units are small and modular; they circulate fluid through a receiver in the middle of the mirror.

The new plant on Kona occupies just 3.8 acres, Sopogy says. Its 1,000 MicroCSP units can generate 2 megawatts of electricity, and a buffer system allows thermal energy to be generated even in cloudy weather.

The 2-megawatt facility was built at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii, a state-run research and education center on Kona’s west coast. The lab’s tenants study ocean-based and renewable energy technologies.