SOLAR POWER TOWERS GET SAFER

How Ivanpah is reducing glint and glare from heliostats; Palen Solar Holdings (PSH), the partnership between BrightSource Energy and Abengoa Solar, is attempting to get the 500MW Palen power tower project permitted in California’s notoriously rigorous permitting process.

Susan Kraemer and Angela Castillo, Sept. 4, 2014 (CSP Today)

“…[Owners of the 390MW Ivanpah project, the first utility-scale power tower CSP project to come online in America, have] solved the problem of glare from the mirrors reflecting sunlight with a new algorithm for mirrors in standby…[During] the permitting process for its follow up, the 500MW Palen Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) power tower, [it] has been a challenge…In the first six months of operation, 321 birds or bats were killed at the 3,500 square acre Ivanpah site. Of this number, 133 had their flying impaired by singed feathers from flying too close to the tower receivers. The majority were small birds, predominantly various species of hummingbirds and sparrows…Using humane bird deterrents to keep birds away, Ivanpah is now reducing those numbers…In CSP power tower technology, sunlight is reflected off mirrors focused on a receiver atop a tower to heat a fluid which can then be used to generate electricity directly via turbines, or first stored for later use. Because mirrors reflect sunlight, glare could become an issue…[The] solution? Aim the standby heliostats in a variety of directions, rather than at a focal point above the tower as before…The result? A noticeable difference in glare…to the required “less than significant” levels.” click here for more

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