RIL to set up semiconductor fab, solar photovoltaic units

Submits proposal to Govt; investment at Rs 30,000 cr

– Kamal Narang

Hi-tech investments: The Minister for IT & Communications, Mr A. Raja, addressing a press conference in the Capital on Thursday.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, April 3 Marking the largest-ever project under the new semiconductor policy, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has approached the Government with plans to set up a semiconductor wafer fabrication plant and solar PV module unit, at a total outlay of over Rs 30,000 crore.

With this, the Government has now received a cumulative investment commitment of almost Rs 63,000 crore from six companies, under the scheme to promote semiconductor fabs and other micro and nano technology units.

Reliance Industries' proposal for establishment of a semiconductor wafer fab with Assembly, Test, Mark and Packaging (ATMP) facility would involve an investment of Rs 18,521 crore spread over a period of 10 years. The company plans to locate the proposed facility – with a fab capacity of 70,000 wafers per month and ATMP capacity of 10 million packages per week – at either an SEZ in Navi Mumbai, Hyderabad, Mysore or Haryana. This first-of-its-kind fab in the private sector would focus on areas such as advanced logic, memories and embedded system on chips, sources said.

Reliance also plans to manufacture polysilicon, solar-grade wafers and SPV modules with capacity of 1 Giga Watt, at an investment of Rs 11,631 crore over a 10-year period. While the solar project located at SEZ in Jamnagar (Gujarat) is expected to create over 11,000 jobs, the semiconductor wafer fab and ATMP units would employ another 4,000 people. RIL has sought a subsidy of Rs 3,394.5 crore for the semiconductor fab and Rs 2,326.2 crore for the solar project.

Other companies that have applied to the Government under the scheme are Videocon Industries (Rs 8,000 crore investment), Moser Baer PV Technologies (Rs 6,000 crore), Titan Energy System (Rs 5,880 crore), KSK Energy Ventures (Rs 3,211 crore), and Signet Solar (Rs 9,672 crore). Proposals received are for manufacture of items such as Polysilicon, wafers, solar cells, solar photovoltaic modules (SPV) liquid crystal display (LCD), integrated circuits-advanced logic, memory and embedded system on chip, including ATMP facility for semiconductor devices.

India has long been trying to woo global chip giants to set up manufacturing units (Intel decided to set up its manufacturing plants in China and Vietnam), and the new policy is aimed at placing the country in the league of hardware destinations such as Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea, and Singapore.

"There has been a tremendous response among investors both in India and outside. Within a short span of seven months, seven proposals envisaging investments of Rs 62,915 crore have been received," the Communications and IT Minister, Mr A. Raja, told reporters here.

Under the special incentive package scheme, the Government would provide incentive of 20 per cent capital expenditure during the first 10 years for the units in SEZs and 25 per cent of the capital expenditure in non-SEZ units.

Bill Boyne: It's time to get serious about solar energy

4/3/2008 8:33:31 AM

(10) Comments

You can't beat the sun as a source of energy.

That's the view of those who are building thermal solar energy plants in this country's western deserts.

Thermal solar energy is produced by building long lines of mirrors in the desert to focus sunlight on large steel pipes filled with oil. The sunlight heats the oil, which is then passed through water to produce steam and the steam is used to run generators, producing electricity.

It is not a new process, but it is gaining popularity as the need for renewable energy sources becomes more urgent.

A new plant, Nevada Solar One, has been built near Boulder City, Nev., 20 miles south of Las Vegas, by Acciona Solar Power, a Spanish firm. Ten other plants of this type are being planned in California, Arizona and Nevada.

When completed, the Solar One plant will be capable of producing enough power for 14,000 households. It is the third largest thermal solar power plant in the world.

Backers of thermal solar plants say the western deserts receive enough sunshine to provide the power to meet the needs of all 50 states. However, that is impractical because of the long transmission cables that would be needed.

Industry experts say that the Nevada plants will produce electric power at a cost of 15 to 20 cents per kilowatt hour and they believe that, in time, this cost can be reduced to 10 cents. New coal-fired plants produce power at a cost of 7 cents per kilowatt hour, but the thermal solar plants are preferred because they do not produce carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions.

Eight thermal solar plants are under construction in Spain, Algeria and Morocco and others are being planned in Mexico, Israel, South Africa, China and Egypt.

Most people are more familiar with solar voltaic panels, but that process is designed for other uses.

The Nevada Solar One plant covers 400 acres and has 184,000 mirrors. The mirrors are designed to turn slowly, following the sun across the sky, in order to deliver the maximum amount of heat for creating steam.

The reflected sunlight heats the oil to 400 degrees Celsius (about 750 degrees Fahrenheit). If the heat is not needed immediately, the oil is transferred to a vault of molten salt, where the heat can be stored for later use.

Gilbert Cohen, senior vice president of Acciona Solar Power, has said the western United States could produce 4,000 to 40,000 megawatts of electric power, enough to serve 1 million to 4 million homes.

Jose Manuel Entrecanales, chairman and chief executive officer of Acciona Solar Power, was the speaker at the dedication ceremonies for the plant in February. He said, "Nevada Solar One represents our bid to excel in new technologies to produce clean and sustainable energy, with an emphasis on economic viability, technical competence and the capacity to be replicated in locations around the world."

Acciona Solar Power plans to reduce the world's carbon dioxide emissions by 220 million tons in the next 23 years. This is a full 1 percent of the reduction of 18.4 billion tons needed from the world's power production industry by the 2030 deadline set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The European Solar Thermal Industry Federation recently announced a solar thermal action plan for Europe. Its goal for 2020 is to reach one square meter of solar collector area for every person in Europe -- enough to produce 320 gigawatts of solar thermal power. The plan also calls for regulations requiring use of solar thermal energy in new or remodeled buildings and financial incentives for solar thermal power plants.

The United States needs a similar action plan to take advantage of one of the cleanest and most productive sources of electricity that can be found.

Boyne is a retired publisher and editor of the Post-Bulletin. His column appears weekly.

Solel to add solar facilities in Spain

The Beit Shemesh-based firm will manufacture components for solar thermal power fields.

Globes' correspondent 2 Apr 08   13:57

Solar energy systems maker Solel Solar Systems Ltd. is setting up a factory in Andalusia, Spain, to manufacture components for solar thermal power fields. Investment in the plant will total $140 million. The new factory will be a one-stop-shop, which will have production lines for the manufacture of all essential components for the building of solar thermal power fields, including Solel Solar's "Solel 6" parabolic trough collector, which better exploits solar energy than earlier receptors. Construction of the factory will begin this year and be completed in 2011, and will have 350 employees. Some production lines will begin operating in 2009. Solel Solar CEO Avi Brenmiller presented the industrial strategy to President of the Autonomous Government of Andalusia Manuel Chaves, the President of the Andalusia Parliament and other dignitaries. Beit Shemesh-based Solel Solar entered the Spanish market two years ago, providing the core technology for three solar power stations that will generate an aggregate 150 megawatts of electricity. The power stations are being built by Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA (ACS) (Madrid; XETRA: ACS; Bulletin Board: ACSAF), and Aries Termotechnica. Electricity generated by Solel Solar's solar thermal technology in the Spanish project will cost €0.30 per kilowatt/hour. The Spanish government will subsidize the rate for 25 years in order to diversify the country's energy sources, encourage the construction of environmentally friendly power stations, and support local electricity production. Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 2, 2008 © Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2008

Solar Energy Generating Systems

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Sketch of a Parabolic Trough Collector

Aerial view showing portions of four of the five SEGS III-VII plants located at Kramer Junction

Close-up of the Kramer Junction mirrors. Note that several of the mirrors have been broken

Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) is the name given to nine solar power plants in California's Mojave Desert, where insolation is among the best available in the United States. SEGS III-VII are located at Kramer Junction, with SEGS VIII-IX at Harper Lake and SEGS I-II at Daggett respectively.^[1]

The installation uses parabolic trough solar thermal technology along with natural gas to generate electricity. The plants have a 354 MW installed capacity, making it the largest installation of solar plants of any kind in the world.^[1] By comparison, the largest photovoltaic plant produces 12 MW,^[2] although a 40 MW PV installation (Waldpolenz Solar Park) is under construction in Germany^[3] and a 154 MW PV Solar power station in Victoria, Australia, is planned.^[4]

The SEGS power plants were commissioned between 1984 and 1991. The facilities have a total of over 1,000,000 mirrors and cover more than 1,600 acres (6.4 km²). SEGS VIII (80MW) and SEGS IX (80MW) are the largest solar power plants individually and collectively in the world.^[5]

[edit] See also

• FPL Energy
• List of solar thermal power stations
• Parabolic trough
• Solar power
• Solar power plants in the Mojave Desert
• Solar thermal energy

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} The Energy Blog: About Parabolic Trough Solar
2. ^ SunPower Corporation - SunPower Announces the Opening of SOLON's Solarpark Gut Erlasse
3. ^ Phase One of 40 MW German Solar Park Begun
4. ^ Australia advances with solar power The Times, 26 October 2006.
5. ^ Solar Trough Power Plants

[edit] External links

• Official web site
• Ten facts about solar thermal power
• SEGS I and II: 34°51′47″N 116°49′37″W / 34.8631, -116.827
• SEGS III through VII: 35°00′51″N 117°33′32″W / 35.0142, -117.559
• SEGS VIII and IX: 35°01′54″N 117°20′53″W / 35.0316, -117.348

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Energy_Generating_Systems"

Categories: Solar electricity companies of the United States | Mojave Desert | Solar power stations in the United States | Energy resource facilities in California

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Solar Thermal Power: Simple and Increasingly Effective

POSTED: Thursday, March 06, 2008

FROM BLOG: Burner Trouble-climate change POV - It looks like climate change is starting to affect us in our daily lives. This is my view from Rochester, NY and as I travel.

 

The following blog post is from an independent writer and is not connected with Reuters News. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by Reuters.com.

 

Solar thermal power is generated by building a field of concave mirrors that focus the sun's heat onto a liquid encased in pipes. The liquid is superheated and used to generate steam that powers turbines, generating electricity. In the south west, where open desert land and sunlight are plentiful, they are building these facilities as fast as they can. They are completely unrelated to conventional solar panels that convert light into electricity but are very costly to build.

"On sunny afternoons, those 10 plants would produce as much electricity as three nuclear reactors, but they can be built in as little as two years, compared with a decade or longer for a nuclear plant. Some of the new plants will feature systems that allow them to store heat and generate electricity for hours after sunset."

NYTimes.com (link above)

New designs that focus the heat onto towers will work in less sunny areas. With a lot of discussion about starting to build new nuclear plants which are very efficient but create an unsustainable stream of radioactive waste, it's important to understand that we have very clean alternatives. There are environmental impacts of building these large facilities on open land but they are nothing compared to the impact of any conventional energy source such as coal, gas or nuclear.

Solar Thermal Electricity: Catching the Eye of Utility Companies

POSTED: Friday, March 28, 2008

FROM BLOG: Triple Pundit - Serving people, planet and profit: An 'integrated bottom-line' approach to looking at business from the next generation of MBAs

 

The following blog post is from an independent writer and is not connected with Reuters News. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by Reuters.com.

 

The American Southwest has some of the greatest solar resources on the globe, it yet remains largely untapped. This trend may be changing as solar technology matures, market forces shift and concern for climate change mounts.

One of the most common arguments against large-scale use of renewable energy is that it cannot produce a steady, reliable stream of energy, day and night. Ausra Inc. does not agree. They believe that solar thermal technology has the potential to supply over 90% of grid power, while finding solutions to environmental issues.

"The U.S. could nearly eliminate our dependence on coal, oil and gas for electricity and transportation, drastically slashing global warming pollution without increasing costs for energy," said David Mills, chief scientific officer and founder of Ausra.

You may be wondering, how will we have electricity at night or during cloudy weather if solar power is generating a majority of our electricity? Will we use large banks of batteries or burn candles?

Solar Thermal with Storage Capacity
The ability to utilize solar thermal technology after the sun sets is made possible by a storage system that is up to 93% efficient, according to Ausra's executive vice president John O'Donnell.

High efficiency is achieved because solar thermal plants do not need to convert energy to another form in order to store it and do not rely on battery technology. Flat moving reflectors or parabolic troughs focus solar energy to generate heat. This heat generates steam that turns turbines, thus generating an electric current.

If you want to generate electricity at 3 am, heat from the sun can be stored for later use. This gives solar thermal technology the ability to not just produce peak power, but also generate base load electricity.

Heat storage is not a new technology, having been used for plastic manufacturing and petroleum production for a long time. Solar thermal plants have a cost advantage compared to photovoltaic technology because energy can be stored as heat without being converted to another form or relying on batteries.

"My favorite example in comparing energy storage options is on your desktop," said John O'Donnell. "If you have a laptop computer and a thermos of coffee on your desk, the battery in your laptop and the thermos store about the same amount of energy. One of them costs about $150 and the other one costs maybe $3 to $5. On the wholesale level, storing electric power is at least 100 times more expensive than storing heat."

Peak Power: Low Hanging Fruit for Solar Thermal Energy
The maximum amount of electricity demand on the power grid occurs during weekday afternoons and evenings in the summer months in most regions of the United States. This is largely caused by air conditioning loads, which gobble up electricity. Solar energy availability however starts to drop in the late afternoon, before peak load has started to wane.

Because the electric grid needs to be able to handle these peak loads, capacity is built to specifically handle these loads. Natural gas typically comes to the rescue to produce this electricity. Although these plants are expensive to operate, they are cheaper to construct than most of the alternatives. They are fast to start, producing power in 30 minutes or less.

Additional power plants are constructed just to generate electricity for the times when it is needed most. This causes peak electricity to be more expensive. A kilowatt hour of electricity at 3 pm and 3 am does not come with the same price tag to the utility company.

Now add the uncertainty of the price of natural gas. "No utility can tell you what the cost of power will be from a gas plant, five or ten years from now," said Frederick Morse, senior advisor for the U.S., Abengoa Solar. "From a solar plant, the price is fixed. There is no fuel component to alter it."

This is where solar energy can truly shine. "Adding solar plants that reliably generate until 10 pm displaces the highest cost alternative power," said John O'Donnell. "That is the first wave of solar thermal plants. The daily and seasonal variation in grid load in the United States matches solar availability."

Due to cost, infrastructure and technology hurdles, it will be a while until we see solar energy generating large-scale base load capacity, thus replacing nuclear and coal power plants. Some of the factors that will push this along are a strong national high voltage transmission system, solar technology advances, high fossil fuel costs, a longer-term extension of the commercial solar tax credit, and a carbon tax.

Photo: Ausra's facility in New South Wales, Australia. Courtesy of Ausra.

BrightSource Energy signs whopper solar contract with PG&E

31st March, 2008

Posted by Michael Kanellos | Post a comment

BrightSource Energy will build 500 megawatts' worth of solar thermal power plants for Pacific Gas & Electric in California, and the contract contains an option for PG&E to order another 400 megawatts on top of that.

The deal is the largest yet in the solar thermal world when the option is added. PG&E earlier inked a deal with Israel's Solel under which Solel will build 533 megawatts' worth of solar power for the utility. Ausra, an Australian start-up that has moved to the U.S., will build a 177-megawatt plant for PG&E. Ausra also has a contract to build a 300-megawatt facility for FPL, a Florida utility.

PG&E is required by the state to get 20 percent of its power from renewable sources (not including conventional hydroelectric power) by 2010. The utility actually already has enough, under contract terms, to hit that mark, but it is also signing contracts for the decade beyond the 2010 deadline.

Under the deal, BrightSource, based in Oakland, will build a 100-megawatt solar plant in Ivanpah, Calif. (near Barstow and close to the Nevada state line), that will start operating in 2011. The company will then build a 200-megawatt solar plant the year after that, and another one a year after that, said BrightSource CEO John Woolard. While the first two plants will go up in Ivanpah, the remaining power plants will be built in nearby Broadwell, Calif.

Solar thermal is considered by many to be one of the most promising forms of renewable energy. In solar thermal plants, arrays of mirrors collect heat from the sun and then focus that heat onto a chamber or tube filled with liquid. The liquid is used to create steam, which then turns a turbine. Excess heat captured by the mirrors can also be stored in molten salt, so that these plants can produce electricity after the sun goes down. Plants are expected to go up in the southwestern U.S., Spain, Abu Dhabi, and North Africa in the next few years.

Some have even predicted that large industrial conglomerates may build and make their own solar thermal plants. Currently, while investors fund these projects, solar thermal plants provide power over the grid to the public at large.

BrightSource has taken some of the expense out of solar thermal power plants through the design of its components. The company employs flat mirrors, rather than more expensive curved mirrors, to capture heat. The liquid that gets heated is contained in a large tower, called a heliostat, rather than a tube like in many other plants. This configuration allows BrightSource to more efficiently exploit the heat that gets gathered by the mirrors, according to the company. (The liquid used in its system is also water, which gets turned directly into steam, rather than oil, a switch that also improves thermal efficiency.) Overall construction costs are also lower than conventional thermal systems, the company claims.

An artist's rendering of how heliostats work. The things on the ground are mirrors. They focus heat on the towers, where water is boiled to make steam.

(Credit: BrightSource Energy)

The size of the power plants helps to reduce costs as well. The more mirrors and other equipment a company can install in a single location, the less power costs. Now, the largest plants can produce between 300 and 400 megawatts, and larger ones are expected in the future.

"Our target is to be cost competitive with fossil fuels" for power generation, said Woolard.

The plants, though, aren't cheap. The BrightSource plants will likely cost around $2 billion to $3 billion in the aggregate, he said.

Companies built solar thermal plants in California in the late '80s and early '90s. Conventional electricity, however, dropped in price and the state eliminated some tax breaks for solar electricity providers. The combination of factors drove some solar power providers out of business. One of those companies was Luz, which was tinkering with a flat mirror/water tower system. The Luz management team came together again years later to form BrightSource.

One cloud on the horizon? Tax benefits. Right now, California exempts solar thermal power providers from real estate taxes, which would cost these companies millions. But the exemption ends in 2009. A bill is winding its way through the state senate that would extend it to 2016.

A bigger problem, though, revolves around the possible elimination of federal tax incentives, which are slated to expire this year. "That is a bigger problem," said Woolard.