Power Tower Construction Under Way
December 20, 2011 - Solar Reserve has begun construction of the 600-foot solar thermal power tower in the middle of a broad basin northwest of Tonopah, Nevada. It dominates the landscape now, much taller than the nearby Crescent Dunes.
^The tower is the only tall structure in the landscape.
^Cement power tower that will be surrounded by mirrors.
^Sandy desert basin habitat surrounds the project.
^Shrub desert around the project.
^A chainlink fence surrounds the future circular solar field, not yet constructed.
^Crescent Dunes a few miles away from the project site.
^The power tower visible from a small road heading north from Highway 95.
^Distant power tower from a county road.
^The Toiyabe Range lies in the distance.
^Arc Dome in the Toiyabe Range, about 40 miles distant, can be seen to the left of the tower. Arc Dome is in a wilderness area.
^Base of the power tower.
^Arc Dome peak rises in the distance at 11,361 feet.
^Top of the power tower.
^Near the power tower, looking westwards towards the Miller's Solar Energy Zone proposed by Bureau of Land Management in its solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement.
^The Solar Reserve power tower (left) visible from Miller's Rest Stop along Highway 95, an important birdwatching area where migratory songbirds are attracted to the small oasis in spring and fall.
DOE Awards Loan Guarantee to Crescent Dunes Project
September 28, 2011 - With the deadline looming on September 30 for the program to end, Solar Reserve squeaked under the wire to receive a $737 million Department of Energy loan guarantee. The 110 megawatt concentrating solar power tower generating facility with molten salt as the primary heat transfer and storage medium. It will be the first of its kind in the United States and the tallest molten salt tower in the world. Located 14 miles northwest of Tonopah, Nevada on land leased from the Bureau of Land Management, the company anticipates the facility will fund 600 construction jobs and 45 permanent jobs. The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy facility is expected to avoid nearly 290,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.
The project includes 17,500 heliostats (mirror assemblies) that collect and focus the sun's thermal energy to heat molten salt flowing through an approximately 640-foot tall solar power tower. The high temperature molten salt circulates from the tower to a storage tank, where it is then used to produce steam and generate electricity. Excess thermal energy is stored in the molten salt for about 6 hours after sunset. The molten salt is not explosive, and any leaks would solidify.
Financing on the Edge
September 23, 2011 - Even with ground broken on the power block, according to Pahrump Valley Times, Solar Reserve needs Nye County to resolve a snag in the Development Agreement concerning the Bureau of Land Management Right-of-Way connecting the project to NV Energy's Anaconda Moly substation. NV Energy already signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with SolarReserve.
The U.S. Department of Energy made conditional a $737 million loan guarantee for the project last April. By Wednesday DOE must close the loan to finalize it, before the September 30 deadline, or Solar Reserve risks losing it.
http://pvtimes.com/news/solar-reserve-pact-changed/
Salazar Approves Project
December 20, 2010 - Seemingly before the end of the public comment period, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signed the approval of Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, enabling the company to begin construction.
The project, proposed by SolarReserve's Tonopah Solar Energy, LLC of Santa Monica, California, is sited on approximately 2,250 acres administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) about 13 miles northwest of Tonopah in Nye County, Nevada.
“These energy projects exemplify the collaborative partnerships we have developed to help achieve our common goals to protect our natural environment while utilizing America’s wealth of renewable energy resources,” said Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey.
Draft Environmental Impact Statement Out
September 3, 2010 - Notice of Availability of Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Tonopah Solar Energy Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, Nye County, NV, by Bureau of Land Management.
SUMMARY: In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (NEPA), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has prepared a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, Nye County, Nevada, and by this Notice is announcing the opening of the comment period.
DATES: To ensure comments will be considered, the BLM must receive written comments on the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project Draft EIS within 45 days following the date the Environmental Protection Agency publishes its Notice of Availability in the Federal Register. The BLM will announce future meetings or hearings and any other public
involvement activities at least 15 days in advance through public notices, media news releases, and/or mailings.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project Draft EIS by any of the following methods:
E-mail: crescent_dunes@blm.gov.
Fax: 775-482-7810.
Mail: Timothy Coward, Renewable Energy Project Manager, BLM Tonopah Field Office, P.O. Box 911, Tonopah, Nevada 89049.
Copies of the Draft EIS for the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project are available at the BLM Tonopah Field Office and at the Battle Mountain District Office, 50 Bastian Road, Battle Mountain, Nevada, or at the following Web site: http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/battle_mountain_field.html.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Timothy Coward, (775) 482-7800, BLM Tonopah Field Office, 1553 South Main Street, P.O. Box 911, Tonopah, Nevada 89049; Timothy_Coward@blm.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Tonopah Solar Energy, LLC applied to the BLM for a 7,680-acre right-of-way (ROW) on public lands to construct a concentrated solar thermal power plant facility approximately 13 miles northwest of Tonopah, Nye County, Nevada. The proposed project is not expected to use the total acres applied for in the ROW application. The project is located within the southern portion of the Big Smoky Valley,
north of U.S. Highway 95/6 along the Gabbs Pole Line Road (State Highway 89). The facility is expected to operate for approximately 30 years. The proposed solar power project would use concentrated solar power technology, using heliostats or mirrors to focus sunlight on a receiver erected in the center of the solar field (the power tower or central receiver). A heat transfer fluid is heated as it passes through the receiver and is then circulated through a series of heat exchangers to generate high-pressure steam. The steam is used to power a conventional Rankine cycle steam turbine, which produces electricity. The exhaust steam from the turbine is condensed and returned via
feedwater pumps to the heat exchangers where steam is regenerated. Hybrid cooling processes would be used for this project to minimize water use while continuing to maintain efficient power generation. The plant design would generate a nominal capacity of 100 megawatts.
The project's proposed facility design includes the heliostat fields, a 653-foot central receiver tower, a power block, buildings, a parking area, a laydown area, evaporating ponds, and an access road. A single overhead 230-kilovolt transmission line would connect the plant to the nearby Anaconda Moly substation. The Draft EIS describes and analyzes the proposed project's site-specific impacts on air quality, biological resources, cultural
resources, water resources, geological resources, hazardous materials handling, land use, noise, paleontological resources, public health, socioeconomics, soils, traffic and transportation, visual resources, wilderness characteristics, waste management, worker safety, and fire protection. The Draft EIS also describes facility design engineering,
efficiency, reliability, transmission system engineering, and transmission line safety.
Three action alternatives were analyzed in addition to the No Action alternative: the Proposed Action Alternative, Alternative 1, and Alternative 2. Alternative 2 is the BLM preferred alternative. Scoping of the project occurred from November 24, 2009 through
December 24, 2009. A total of 24 comments were received. Comments on cumulative impacts identified the affects to air quality to include criteria pollutant and "Dark Sky'' attributes on the effects of the viewshed, and the availability of water for current and future use. Other comments were that the proposed project is located in an area of
pediment adjacent to 2 highly mineralized mountain ranges which have identified molybdenum and lithium deposits. Maps of the proposed project area and the alternatives being analyzed in the Draft EIS are available at the BLM Tonopah Field Office, the Battle Mountain District Office, and at: http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/battle_mountain_field.html.
Please note that public comments and information submitted, including names, street addresses, and e-mail addresses of persons who submit comments, will be available for public review and disclosure at the above address during regular business hours (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.), Monday through Friday, except holidays. Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment--including your personal identifying information--may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot
guarantee that we will be able to do so.
[Federal Register: September 3, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 171)]
[Notices]
[Page 54177]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr03se10-92]
^Crescent Dunes in Big Smoky Valley, Nye County, Nevada.
Solar Thermal Power Tower Proposal
July 28, 2010 - Tonopah, Nevada - SolarReserve, a California-based developer of utility-scale solar power projects, begins next steps on its 100-megawatt Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project in conjunction with NV Energy's receipt of approval from the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN) today. This approval follows on last December's announcement that SolarReserve's wholly owned subsidiary, Tonopah Solar Energy LLC, and NV Energy had signed a 25-year power purchase agreement for the sale of electricity from the proposed 180 megawatt solar energy project located near the town of Tonopah, in Nye County, Nevada. The project would occupy 1,600 to 2,000 acres. Molten salt storage requires more water use for cooling than non-storage projects, and may be well over 500 acre-feet/year.
Utilizing an advanced molten salt system technology, the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project would be able to store 10 hours of solar energy and consequently would have the capacity to generate electricity during cloud cover or after the sun has gone down as well as the ability to shift power production to meet peak demand periods. When completed, the Crescent Dunes solar project will supply approximately 480,000 megawatt hours annually of electricity.
Electricity from Crescent Dunes would go into the power grid that serves Northern Nevada. But after NV Energy finishes its 235-mile One Nevada transmission network, possibly by mid-2012, then north and south grids will connect, and energy from Crescent Dunes will power homes in the Las Vegas Valley.
The project still needs to go through the Bureau of Land Management environmental review process, and even though it is Fast-tracked, we have not seen a Draft Environmental Impact Statement appear yet.
See Market Watch and Las Vegas Review-Journal.
^Indian rice grass (Achnatherum hymenoides) forms a luxuriant desert grassland on the sand sheet next to the tall dunes where SolarReserve wants to construct its power tower.
^A female Long-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia wilizenii) takes a shade break under an Indian ricegrass bunch while out hunting for smaller lizards on the site.
^The project site north of Tonopah, Nevada, with Lone Mountain, an ancient volcanic core from the Age of Dinosaurs, in the distance.
Other SolarReserve Projects
In California, the SolarReserve's Rice Solar Energy Project would produce 150 MW on BLM land in Riverside County in remote Rice Valley, south of Ward Valley, the Turtle Mountains, and Vidal Junction. See the California Energy Commission website.
Residents of the San Luis Valley in Saguache County, Colorado, became aware of a similar 200 MW project recently, north of Center on about 6,500 acres of private land. Two 656-foot power towers would be surrounded by 25-foot high tracking mirrors. This project would also have molten salt tanks. Each plant would require 1,000 acre feet per year of water. See San Luis Valley Renewable Communities Alliance.
^Solar 1 at Daggett, California, where molten salt storage was tested in the 1990s. This plant has since closed and been dismantled.
