January 2010
Breaking the heat barrier: SHEC Energy's red hot technology
CSP Today
Original article at CSP Today
Canadian research and technology company, Shec Energy Inc,
has developed concentrator and receiver technology that, it says, can
generate power four times more efficiently than existing parabolic trough
technologies, at half the cost. CSP Today speaks to SHEC Energy's chief
operating officer, Keith Rogers, to find out how they have achieved these
results and when SHEC Energy's technology will be hitting the market.
By Rikki Stancich in Paris
When they began researching applications for hydrogen fuel cells using solar
technology back in 1996, SHEC Energy's engineers were aiming to push
operating temperatures as high as possible - up to around 850 degrees
celcius.
Today, the automobile market for which its technology was originally
designed remains elusive. However, its engineers have found a way to put the
technology to good use: concentrating solar power generation.
Having developed a solar array, receivers and a heat transfer fluid that can
handle working temperatures of around 800 degrees celcius, SHEC Energy is now
looking to round-off its offering with a thermal storage solution.
With thermal storage under its belt, SHEC Energy will be a solar power
generating force to reckon with. The company believes that in as few as 3-4
years, its technology will bring the levelised energy cost of solar thermal
to fossil fuel parity.
CSP Today: What is the link between SHEC Energy's CSP
technology and the technology it originally developed to produce Syngas, or
biofuel?
Keith Rogers: SHEC Energy originally
developed its advanced high temperature solar technology for solar thermal
chemical processes to produce syngas, which can be processed into a number of
fuels.
This requires temperatures significantly higher than are normally required
for power generation.
This has given SHEC Energy an advantage in producing significantly more
efficient solar thermal electric power plants, in particular when using our
high temperature thermal storage technology.
CSP Today: Can you please describe the solar thermal
solution that has been developed by SHEC Energy?
Keith Rogers: SHEC Energy has developed a
disruptive - next generation technology that dramatically decreases radiant
energy (emissivity) losses. SHEC Energy super concentrates sunlight to
dramatically decrease the area from which energy can be radiated.
The advanced solar receiver technology can be used in both point focus and
solar tower designs to increase efficiency.
In comparing this technology to trough systems, double the operating
temperatures can be achieved, effectively doubling turbine efficiencies,
particularly when employing thermal storage.
The power profile is significantly improved as well. When factoring in
seasonably longer days in the summer, about double or more collectable
sun-hours are achievable depending on latitude.
In effect, about 4 times the power can be generated from the same mirror
collection area as a trough system.
We have analyzed the effect of the technology on levelized production costs
of SHEC Energy versus parabolic trough operators in California. The capital
and financing costs for SHEC Energy are projected to be $115 per MW-h versus
$230 per MW-h for parabolic trough technology.
The fixed operating and maintenance costs are similar to the parabolic
trough plants. If the SHEC Energy plant were to fund the plant with 100%
equity, the levelized cost of capital and financing drops to US$54 per
MW-h.
CSP Today: SHEC Energy has devised its high-ratio solar
concentrators in-house. What kind of technology and materials does it use in
the solar array?
Keith Rogers: SHEC Energy uses glass.
Super-concentration requires rigorous dimensional stability because we use an
extremely small target area.
This is critical for minimizing radiant energy loss, particularly at high
temperatures. Radiant energy loss increases with temperature to the fourth
power.
Our concentrator design combined with our patented high temperature receiver
allows us to operate with exceptionally high efficiencies at very high
temperatures.
CSP Today: Shec Energy has engineered a reflector
manufacturing process that is apparently 30,000 times faster than bent glass
manufacturing methods. How have you managed to speed the process to this
degree?
Keith Rogers: When developing our
technology, we recognized an issue with the delivery of parabolic
mirrors.
The ability of the supply chain to deliver parabolic mirrors in a timely
fashion for commercial scale deployment was lacking.
The mirror forming time was 24 hours per processing oven. SHEC Energy
developed a proprietary process to resolve this supply chain problem by
inventing a process to form the glass for these mirrors in only 45
minutes.
This is 30 times faster than traditional mirror forming technologies. We
cannot disclose any further details on this technology.
SHEC Energy has been awarded a grant for 25 million Euros to build a
manufacturing plant in Germany to deploy this technology. This grant has to
be matched in order for the manufacturing capability to be built.
This factory using our proprietary manufacturing technologies will
substantially minimize production cost of our solar components.
CSP Today: What business model does SHEC Energy intend
to adopt?
Keith Rogers: Owner-operator is definitely
our preferred business model. But we would be willing – under special
circumstances – to consider other options.
CSP Today: SHEC Energy has successfully run a pilot
scheme for its CSP technology and apparently has entered an agreement to
develop 3GW of solar energy (spread across six 500 MW plants). Are you able
to disclose with whom the agreement was signed and where these solar fields
will be constructed?
Keith Rogers: SHEC Energy successfully
completed two years of field trials of its technology on a small-scale pilot
plant at a test site in Arizona.
This pilot plant featured a small-scale solar array, our ultra high
efficiency solar receiver and solar aperture. The solar array consisted of
25-curved mirrors that were formed using our rapid glass forming
technology.
Performance data and mechanical integrity were verified. After two years of
field trials, the solar receiver was dismantled and inspected. It was in
pristine condition.
SHEC Energy is currently working on or has signed MOUs for projects totaling
close to 4 GW of solar energy.
These projects will be spread geographically in Africa, Asia, Europe and the
Middle East. It is somewhat premature to discuss project specifics.
CSP Today: Given the operating temperatures, how easy is
it to bolt SHEC Energy's solution onto existing coal or gas-fired power
stations?
Keith Rogers: It can be easily bolted on to
existing power stations. But it could just as easily be a standalone
Greenfield operation.
There are places in the world that have power facilities standing idle due
to a lack of access to fossil fuels. We are very interested in these kinds of
markets.
We also have significant interest from parties in Greenfield
developments.
We are very interested in Integrated Solar Combined Cycle applications as
well as straightforward brown or Greenfield operations.
CSP Today: Have any PPAs been signed on the back of the
pilot? If so, which ones? If not are we likely to see any signed soon?
Keith Rogers: We expect to sign our first
PPA for a relatively small project in the first quarter of this year. We are
actively seeking PPA's and expect to sign PPA's equaling 200MW by mid 2010
and continue to add at least 200MW of additional PPA during each of the
following five years.
CSP Today: Will thermal storage be an option in any of
2010's deals?
Keith Rogers: Thermal Storage won't be
included in any of the 2010 deals. Part of the funding that we are looking to
secure will be used to build a semi-commercial scale plant to test
next-generation technologies, which includes thermal storage.
It's technically challenging – to generate enough solar power for a
24-hour period, the solar field needs to be 3x as efficient during daylight
hours.
CSP Today: SHEC Energy recently collaborated with
Emerson Process Management. What advantage will this confer on Shec Energy's
solution?
Keith Rogers: Our goal is to provide the
lowest cost renewable energy anywhere in the world. To accomplish this, our
plants will be outfitted with state-of-the art process controls and field
sensors.
Emerson's world-class process controls architecture, Delta V, will be used
for distributive controls, safety instrument systems, interlocking and alarm
monitoring.
The Delta V system will be seamlessly integrated with a built-in Intelligent
Device Manager that will fully implement predictive diagnostics in real time
to improve plant availability and reduce maintenance costs.
The control strategy that will be implemented for our plants will include
intelligent (Highway Addressable Remote Transducer - capable) field sensors,
transmitters, control valves and instrumentation that will be remotely
accessible for troubleshooting by SHEC Energy experts regardless of plant
location.
This will greatly reduce commissioning and maintenance expenses while
improving plant reliability.
CSP Today: Can you give some idea of how much more
efficient Delta V would make the balance of plant operations and maintenance
in terms of cost savings?
Keith Rogers: Used in other applications,
such as refineries and chemical plants, Delta V has delivered cost savings of
up to a couple of percentage points – which is a substantial amount of
money.
The relationship between SHEC and Emerson is very exciting – we are
working on a tailored solution together.
CSP Today: Shec Energy's solar thermal technology also
has a hydrogen application. Can you explain how the Dry Fuel Reformation
(DFR) process works?
Keith Rogers: We use the heat energy of the
sun from our solar technology to drive a thermo catalytic process. We are
able to dry reform methane in a two-step process.
The first step, driven by solar energy at 850C, is used to convert methane
to syngas. In the second step we convert the syngas into hydrogen.
When using methane generated from landfills, the process is carbon neutral
and prevents harmful methane emission from entering the atmosphere, which is
21 times more potent as a green house gas compared to carbon dioxide.
With the hydrogen market still developing, SHEC Energy's primary focus is on
power generation.
