eSolar, Inc. and its project team member, Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group, Inc. (B&W PGG), have been selected to receive up to $10.8 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to design, build and test a modular, baseload molten salt power plant using concentrated solar power (CSP).
B&W PGG is a subsidiary of The Babcock & Wilcox Company.
B&W PGG’s scope includes a single, full-scale modular molten salt receiver specially designed to fit with eSolar’s technology; molten salt to steam heat exchangers; and a hot/cold molten salt storage system. The program’s goal is to achieve the lowest levelized electricity cost of any utility-scale CSP plant.
The plant uses a field of mirrors to focus solar energy on a tower-mounted receiver. Molten salt is used to transfer the heat energy concentrated on the receiver to a steam generator, which produces steam used to generate electricity. Molten salt can also be stored for later use during periods when the sun’s energy is not available, allowing the plant to generate power up to 18 hours a day.
B&W PGG said its approach to the plant’s design will reduce the cost of deploying a full-scale molten salt power plant by allowing plant components to be built in a factory and shipped fully assembled to the plant site and by simplifying the plant permitting process.
The project is expected to take approximately two-and-a-half years to design, build and test.
The Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W), a subsidiary of McDermott International, Inc., (NYSE: MDR) is involved in advanced energy technology innovation and service, primarily in nuclear and fossil power.
eSolar is an Idealab company founded in 2007 to develop modular and scalable solar thermal power plant technology. In the summer of 2009, eSolar unveiled the 5-MW Sierra SunTower plant, the only commercial CSP tower facility operating in North America.
eSolar counts Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) among its investors, and it has partnered with Ferrostaal AG to build power plants outside the U.S.
eSolar also has licensed its technology for development in China, and India.
Spanish CSP developer Abengoa solar is currently using molten salt for energy storage. Last week the company was offered a $400 million loan guarantee from the DOE to build a 250-MW power plant in Arizona.
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