When finished, Ivanpah will be the first large CSP project to be completed in the United States since the Solar Electric Generating Stations in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.
BrightSource Energy Inc. (Oakland, California, U.S.) has announced that its Ivanpah concentrating solar power (CSP) project is two-thirds complete, with more than 117,000 steel pylons and 77,000 heliostats installed and interim transmission interconnection completed.
In a newsletter dated October 30th, 2012, BrightSource notes that more than 2,100 workers were on site in October 2012, and that solar field commissioning is underway at the first of the plant’s three units. BrightSource expects to commission the 370 MW project in Southern California’s Mojave Desert in 2013.
"Overall, nearly 50,000 pylons and 50,000 heliostats are installed in Unit 1," said BrightSource in the newsletter. "The solar field commissioning process continues with electricians wiring heliostats together and connecting them to the communication and power distribution units."
"The team is also busy calibrating individual heliostats with the BrightSource SFINCS (Solar Field Integrated Control System), the software that aims the heliostats at the tower with extreme accuracy."
BrightSource continues to install heliostats at Unit 2, and is working on the power block in Unit 3. More than 500 heliostats are being produced each day in common work areas.
When finished, Ivanpah will be the first large CSP project to be completed in the United States since the Solar Electric Generating Stations in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.
http://www.brightsourceenergy.com/
