General Electric, in partnership with eSolar will supply a new hybrid power plant to Turkish developer MetCap Energy, which would be capable of utilizing renewable energy sources such as wind and solar as well as conventional energy sources like natural gas, to produce a total of 530MW of power. The power plant would be built in Karaman in Turkey and it would be capable of supplying electricity to 600,000 homes.
This new power plant from GE would have many new technologies embedded into it, which are yet to be used by anyone else in the world. First, It would use GE’s new FlexiEfficiency gas turbine. This gas turbine is essentially a jet engine that produces power by turning a generator and using the heat exhaust to make steam. Second, it would use solar energy to produce steam. The technology for integrating solar power with all this has been supplied by eSolar. This technology is unique in the sense that it does not produce electricity directly from the sunlight; instead it uses solar energy to power a boiler, which produces steam. The system would also utilize wind energy from traditional wind turbines, which would be located right next to the main power plant. The energy from the turbines could be funneled to the plant for its use or fed into the grid.
Along with these two renewable sources of energy, the power plant would also utilize a more conventional source of energy in the form of natural gas. According to GE officials, this new hybrid power plant would be 70% more efficient compared to power plants operating today. The costs for the renewable parts of the power plant would also be much lower than conventional solar power plants or wind firms.
Some of the technology used in this hybrid power plant isn’t really new. For instance, technology of the gas generator is quite conventional and is in use today in many power plants around the world. But the newness lies in integrating renewable energy sources with more conventional ones. For instance, the use of 25,000 computer controlled mirrors for boiling the water in the tank is really a unique idea. The credit for this particular technology goes to eSolar. According to GE officials the Turkish power plant would resume commercial operation by 2015. GE also stressed the point that similar plants in the future would have a much higher proportion of solar and wind energy than what is used today.
Via: The New York Times
