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Stirling Energy Sets for 2010 Mass Production, $2.2B Solar Thermal Project

The Arizona startup has signed up suppliers for two key components of its SunCatcher, which uses the Stirling engine to generate electricity.

One year after receiving a life-sustaining investment from investment firm NTR, Stirling Energy Systems (SES) is on track to start mass producing equipment for its solar thermal power equipment in the second half of 2010, said an NTR executive.

The production schedule would enable SES to supply parts for a 750-megawatt power plant in California's Imperial Valley that is estimated to cost $2.2 billion to build, said Michael Walsh, the finance director for NTR, during an interview in San Francisco this week. 

NTR, a Dublin firm that was founded in 1978 to build and operate toll roads in Ireland, took a $100 million bet on the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based SES in 2008 as part of its strategy to invest in the renewable energy market in the United States. The 41 percent equity investment gave NTR a 51 percent controlling interest in the company.

Since then, Walsh has jetted frequently across the Atlantic to shepherd SES's progress toward commercializing its technology, which makes use of a 40-foot wide parabolic dish of mirrors that concentrates the sunlight onto a receiver called "power conversion unit."

Sunlight heats up the hydrogen gas in tubes in the PCU, and the gas runs through a heat exchanger to power a four-cylinder Stirling engine. The engine then drives a generator to produce electricity.

SES envisions erecting hundreds of these systems, called SunCatchers, in the desert of California and the Southwest to generate electricity for sale to utilities. The company retooled the SunCatcher and unveiled the improved version earlier this year (see Stirling Redesigns SunCatcher, Plans 1.5MW Demo).

SES has lined up suppliers for the two key components of SunCatcher, Walsh said. Just earlier this week, SES said Linamar (TSX: LNR), a Canadian automotive parts maker, would produce the PUC. Last month, SES said it had inked a deal with Tower Automotive in Lovonia, Mich., to assemble the mirror facets.

Walsh said the big challenge for SES hasn't been the technology development, but the unsexy, nitty-gritty task of finding the right suppliers.

"It's complex to build a supply chain from scratch, and that's what we've been doing in the last year," Walsh said.

Walsh, who also checks on NTR's wind and recycling investments in the United States during his travel here, said SES expects its suppliers to start mass production in the second half of 2010 and roll out 40,000 units per year.

Walsh declined to disclose the financial terms of the supply agreements, but said the companies are seeking federal grants for retooling factories to make renewable energy equipment.

SES would sell the equipment to Tessera Solar, the project development company set by SES earlier this year. Tessera has taken over the projects that SES had worked on since its inception in 1996, and is now developing more than 1.5 gigawatts of projects.

Electricity from the 750-megawatt project in California's Imperial Valley would go to San Diego Gas & Electric. The project has faced delays and is still undergoing the permitting process to secure federal and state approval. Tessera officials are hoping to secure the permits by next spring. 

The company is applying for a loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy to offset half of the cost of the $2.2 billion project, Walsh said. NTR would help in raising the additional funds to pay for the rest of the project. Tessera plans to build the project in phases, starting with 150-200 megawatts, Walsh said.

Finding adequate financing is a big hurdle for solar thermal power developers to overcome, and it's not just because the economy is still in recovery.

Starwood Energy Group Global and Lockheed Martin nixed a power sales contract with utility Arizona Public Service this week after Lockheed determined that the cost for building the 290-megawatt power plant would be too high (see Starwood, Lockheed Cancel 290MW Solar Project). Starwood and the utility signed the deal only in May this year.

Elsewhere, utilities such as the San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. have signed gigawatts of contracts to buy solar power. One of its solar thermal power suppliers, Oakland, Calif.-based BrightSource Energy, is set to start construction in early 2010. But it only recently began to disclose how it would finance a 440-megawatt project in California's Mojave Desert.

BrightSource has lined up San Francisco-based engineering firm Bechtel as a project investor and general contractor (see BrightSource Gets a Big Brother in Bechtel).

Tessera also is under contract to build an 850-megawatt power plant to sell electricity to Southern California Edison.

Image via Stirling Energy Systems.

Comments [18]

  • Solvida 10/2/09 11:36 AM

    August 10, 2005
    World’s Largest Solar Project Unveiled
    Rosemead, California [RenewableEnergyAccess.com]

    For the past few weeks, solar industry insiders have been whispering of a massive multi-MW solar thermal power project slated for the desert Southwest that would be the first commercial application of dish-style solar thermal stirling energy units from Stirling Energy Systems (SES). It’s a secret no more. If all goes according to plan, a partnership between SES and Southern California Edison (SCE), would see the construction of an expansive 4,500-acre solar generating station in Southern California. When completed, the proposed power station would be the world’s largest solar facility, capable of producing more electricity than all other U.S. solar projects combined.

    The 20-year power purchase agreement signed today, which is subject to California Public Utilities Commission approval, calls for development of a 500-MW solar project 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles using innovative Stirling dish technology. The agreement includes an option to expand the project to 850 MW. Initially, Stirling would build a one-MW test facility using 40 of the company’s 37-foot-diameter dish assemblies. Subsequently, a 20,000-dish array would be constructed near Victorville, Calif., during a four-year period.

    To this date, this project, nor any other SES utility scale project has been installed or is operating.

     Reply
      • StevePluvia 10/2/09 1:12 PM

        The only product SES or Tessera have produced thus far are press releases and hype used to raise money.  I’ll put this release in the hype for money category.  Its ridiculous to think they know their costs without a working prototype or operational pilot project.  SES and Tessera are nothing but BS until they prove otherwise.
  • Ucilia Wang 10/2/09 1:50 PM

    Hey StevePluvia, I wonder what you think about the Lockheed/Starwood decision to nix the 290MW project? If an experienced contractor like Lockheed thinks the numbers aren’t going to pan out ...

     Reply
      • StevePluvia 10/2/09 5:20 PM

        Uci, I was surprised by that announcement, only because I figured Lockheed would have done better DD before entering that deal.  I just assumed the system they were using had advanced past the problems associated with the early parabolic solar thermal projects.  But then, who knows the real reason it fell apart—maybe they found a better solar thermal technology?

        I’m with roofer regarding the decision between solar thermal and PV; I’d pick PV every time, unless the SES geniuses have solved the multitude of engineering problems associated with the dish/sterling engine combo without building a prototype or pilot plant.
  • rooferguy 10/2/09 4:24 PM

    The problem is moving parts are expensive, they require a lot of maintenance and can’t be scalably manufactured.  Mirrors need to be washed and get blurred from sand, and many of these systems require a lot of water (Stirling not as much).  These cost effectiveness reasons are probably why Lockheed, the EPC contractor, backed out.

    Not much has really changed in the 40+ years we’ve been trying to generate electricity in the desert using solar thermal systems.  What has changed is that PV modules have gotten much cheaper — thereby providing a much lower life cycle cost way of generating electricity.

     Reply
  • observer 10/2/09 6:18 PM

    esolar promises 6 to 8 cents per kilowat hour in large scale.. far lower than pv, and the technology is vastly simpler than ses. time will tell. 10’s of thousands of 4 cylinder engines wouild seem to be a maintenance nightmare compared to a silent, simpler solution offerred by esolar or existing parabolic collector technology..

    quoting article next to this:

    “PG&E used to get wind power from independent providers for 6 to 8 cents per kilowatt hour. Then it rose to 8 to 10 cents, said Darbee. “Now it is it north of 10 to 12 cents,” he said.

    Power from solar panels now runs around 15 to 20 cents a kilowatt hour, he added. G&E, though, buys power from several sources and prices vary in contract and spot deals. In the future, utilities will build their own solar power plants, which could ameliorate price fluctuations.”

     Reply
      • StevePluvia 10/3/09 2:06 PM

        Observer, esolar promises mean nothing.  They have yrs of promises in various solar projects & technologies none of which has come true.
  • Marc 10/3/09 10:27 AM

    SES is simply a cash eater based ontirely on the stupidity of investors…100´s of millions of dollars invested with nothing to show for it save for some worthless press releases…SHEC Energy is eating their lunch.

     Reply
  • FDDoty 10/9/09 11:24 PM

    I’m definitely with the skeptics on this one. Demos are meaningless without cost analysis. There’s a very good, detailed, technical article by W Reinalter et al in the Feb 2008 issue of J Solar Energy.  They achieve 22.5% peak net solar efficiency with receiver temperature of 850C.  Requires expensive nickel alloys and ceramic parts and insulation…

    Probably more than a billion dollars has been invested trying to make a cheap, efficient Stirling engine over the past four decades.  If it were possible to make an efficient 25 kW Sterling engine for under $75K, Capstone Microturbines would not be making microturbines.  The precision 120m2 dish is going to cost at least another $75K in mass production.

    There’s another way to get a handle on the cost.  The technology has been completely understood for at least 35 years.  What has been the average cost of the demos they’ve made?  Perhaps $5M each?  Mass production of stuff like this seldom brings price down by more than a factor of 6.

    I guessing their price in mass production will be $8-30/W.  Lifetime will be short, and the service issues will be enormous.
    They’re just in this to rip off tax payers with a huge loan they’ll never repay.

     Reply
      • wrs 10/10/09 10:23 AM

        Only time will tell, but I don’t think NTR would have invested so much of their own money if they thought Stirling Energy Systems was the money loser that you skeptics do.  Many of the early prototype SES dishes were essentially hand-made and took months to complete.  Their new partnerships will allow them to produce 10,000 units per year.  We’re talking factors of 100-1000 in cost reduction, not 6.  A well designed external combustion Stirling engine should last decades with little maintenance.  The major potential problem would be leakage of the hydrogen gas, which hopefully they’ve figured out.  Anyway, the partner companies Linamar and Tower Automative have a lot riding on this as well, so I suspect things aren’t as grim as you predict.  Only time will tell, and you could be right in the end.  But, I have access to a web cam that overlooks the Stirling construction site, and they seem to be making fantastic progress.
  • StevePluvia 10/12/09 1:12 PM

    @wrs:  Using the money spent=smart logic, Vinod Blowhard Khosla should #1 on the Forbes 100 rather than fighting for the 2009 Madoff award… Khosla is a perfect example demonstrating money thrown at a project does not = hi IQ…

     Reply
      • wrs 10/12/09 8:53 PM

        But NTR is not Khosla.  What they are trying to do with Stirling Energy Systems is what they successfully did with the Wind Power company Airtricity.
  • StevePluvia 10/12/09 9:37 PM

    @wrs:  As FD mentioned, this is not the first rodeo for someone trying to commercialize a sterling engine.  Do better research.  I’ve run into some of the guys at Sterling Energy in the past; they’re the opposite of credible.  I see this more as their project to part investors from their money than commercialize anything.  One other point, Sterling engines aint wind.

     Reply
      • wrs 10/12/09 11:31 PM

        It’s spelled “Stirling”, not “Sterling”.  I’ve done my research.  The pre-NTR SES management was credible but didn’t have the know-how to scale the technology.  The new NTR management does.  I admit their success isn’t a sure thing, but it also isn’t nearly as speculative as you and the other skeptics indicate.  Like I mentioned, every day I’m watching the progress of 30+ construction workers building the Tessera Maricopa Solar Project.  It looks credible to me.
  • StevePluvia 10/13/09 8:16 AM

    @wrs:  your first mistake is thinking you know how to conduct research; obviously you don’t if you think SES’s tech can be commercialized.  Why don’t you give us the results of your hard core research re their cap-ex & all-in installed costs per/watt (and the basis for your assumptions). 

    Absent these numbers, you can’t possible know their commercial viability, which means your mouth is merely a convenient resting place for your foot…

     Reply
  • wrs 10/13/09 9:52 AM

    You obviously have an axe to grind over SES, so I’ll leave you with your opinion.  Only time will prove which one of us is right.

     Reply

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