The plants have a 354 MW net installed capacity. The nameplate capacity, which operating continuously, would dеliver the samе net power output, coming only from the solar source is around, representing a 21% capacity factor. In addition, the turbines can be utilized at night by burning natural gas. NextEra claims that the solar plants power 232,500 homеs and displace 3,800 tons of pollution pеr year that would have been produced if the electricity had bееn providеd by fossil fuels, such as oil. The facilities have a total of 936,384 mirrors and cover more than. Lined up, the parabolic mirrors would extend over. As an example of cost, in 2002, one of the 30 MW Kramer Junction sites required $90 million to construct, and its operation and maintenance cost was about $3 million per year. With a considered lifetime of 20 years, the operation, maintenance and investments interest and depreciation triples the price, to approximately 14 cents per kilowatt hour.
Principle of operation
The installation uses parabolic trough, solar thermal technology along with natural gas to generate electricity. About 90% of the electricity is produced by the sunlight. Natural gas is only used when the solar power is insufficient to meet the demand from Southern California Edison, the distributor of power in southern California.
Mirrors
The parabolic mirrors are shaped like quarter-pipes. The sun shines onto the panels made of glass, which are 94% reflective, unlike a typical mirror, which is only 70% reflective. The mirrors automatically track the sun throughout the day. The greatest source of mirror breakage is wind, with 3,000 mirrors typically replaced each year. Operators can turn the mirrors to protect them during intense wind storms. An automated washing mechanism is used to periodically clean the parabolic reflective panels. The term "field area" is assessed as the actual collector area.
Heat transfer
The sunlight bounces off the mirrors and is directed to a central tube filled with synthetic oil, which heats to over. The reflected light focused at the central tube is 71 to 80 times more intense than the ordinary sunlight. The synthetic oil transfers its heat to water, which boils and drives the Rankine cycle steam turbine, thereby generating electricity. Synthetic oil is used to carry the heat to keep the pressure within manageable parameters.
Individual locations
The SEGS power plants were built by Luz Industries, and commissioned between December 20, 1984 and October 1, 1990. After Luz Industries' bankruptcy in 1991 plants were sold to various investor groups as individual projects, and expansion including three more plants was halted. Kramer Junction employs about 95 people and 45 people work at Harper Lake.
Harper Lake
SEGS VIII and SEGS IX, located at , until Ivanpah Solar Power Facility commissioning in 2014, were the largest solar thermal power plants individually and collectively in the world. They were the last, the largest, and the most advanced of the nine plants at SEGS, designed to take advantage of the economies of scale. Construction of the tenth plant in the same locality was halted because of the bankruptcy of Luz Industries. Construction of the approved eleventh and twelfth plants never started. Each of the three planned plants had 80 MW of installed capacity. Abengoa Solar recently constructed the 280MW Mojave Solar Project adjacent to the SEGS VIII and SEGS IX plants. The MSP also uses concentrating solar thermal trough technology.
Kramer Junction
This location receives an average of 340 days of sunshine per year, which makes it an ideal place for solar power generation. The average direct normal radiation is 7.44 kWh/m²/day, one of the best in the nation.
Daggett
SEGS I and II were located at and owned by Cogentrix Energy. SEGS II was shut down in 2014 and was replaced by Sunray 3, a 13,8 MW photovoltaic system. SEGS I was shut down one year later and replaced by 20 MW PV system Sunray 2. Sunray 2 and Sunray 3 started production in 2017 as per EIA data.
