L. P. Daniel Engineers and Contractors, Inc.
News
2605 Alpine Blvd. Suite 1
Phone: 619-445-0065
Phone: 619-445-0065Alpine, CA 91901 Fax: 619-445-0067
Fax: 619-445-0067
BUILDING THE FUTURE
L. P. Daniel Engineers and Contractors, Inc.
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Company to supply energy for 120,000 California homes
through building of solar plants
Alpine-based Bethel Energy / L. P. Daniel Engineers & Contractors and Bethel Solar Partners are bringing their 20-plus years of solar experience to help reduce California’s greenhouse gas emissions by over 400,000 tons per year.
Through a contract with Pacific Gas and Electric Company and a partnership with Martifer Renewables Electricity, Bethel Energy is supplying the technology to build hybrid solar-thermal electric power plants (San Joaquin Solar 1 and 2) that will supply 106.8 megawatts (MW) of solar thermal-biofuel hybrid power.
The plants will cost $450 million to build and will be used for over 20 years.
Located near Coalinga, California, the plants will supply enough energy for approximately 120,000 homes and is expected to begin operation in 2011. It will be the world’s first 24-hour fully renewable plant of its kind.
San Joaquin Solar 1 and 2 are unique because of their abilities to produce power even when sun light is not available. The plants produce energy at night using biomass, which is burnable waste obtained from agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley.
The hybrid characteristic derives from the use of the combination of solar radiation collectors and bio-mass fuelled thermal heating facilities to generate electricity with a single turbine-generator unit. The solar collector is a parabolic trough of mirrored glass reflectors which focuses direct solar radiation on an efficient evacuated receiver, of heat collector elements. Each project will use 137,088 mirrors, and an independent positioning system and local control system, which tracks the sun from East to West. Complementing the solar conditions available to the projects is a fully renewable source of biofuel. The technology provides a unique opportunity for hybrid generation because the thermal based steam generating system can be fuelled by solar energy or by heating the heat transfer fluid with a biofuel-fired heater. The power blocks for the projects utilize a conventional single reheat, multiple extraction condensing steam turbine.
Beginning in the near future, the burning of agricultural waste is being banned by the state. With no way to rid themselves of the waste, agricultural producers are forming a surplus of the material. The technology included in the hybrid solar-thermal electric power plants allows for safe and lawful burning of biomass, which will produce the energy to operate the plants at night.
For more information on L.P. Daniel Engineers & Contractors, visit www.lpdaniel.com.
Valerie Detwiler -
