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Alamosa Solar Generating Project
The Alamosa Solar Generating Plant is a 35.3 MWp (30.0 MWAC) concentrator photovoltaics (CPV) power station, the largest in the world when it was completed, in May 2012. It is currently the world's third largest operating CPV facility. The output is being sold to Public Service of Colorado, a subsidiary of Xcel Energy, under a long term Power Purchase Agreement. Facility construction details The facility consists of 504 dual-axis Amonix 7700 solar tracking systems and Solectria grid-connected 70 kW inverters. Each system supports seven CPV "MegaModules" which are each rated to produce about 10 kWp. Each module contains 1,080 fresnel lenses to concentrate sunlight 500 times onto multi-junction solar cells, allowing a greater efficiency than conventional photovoltaic power plants. The facility is sited on 225 acres at an elevation of 7,500 feet in the sunny and cool San Luis Valley, along with several other solar farms. It was built b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Luis Valley
The San Luis Valley is a region in south-central Colorado with a small portion overlapping into New Mexico. The valley is approximately long and wide, extending from the Continental Divide on the northwest rim into New Mexico on the south. It contains 6 counties and portions of 3 others. It is an extensive high-elevation depositional basin of approximately with an average elevation of above sea level. The valley is a section of the Rio Grande Rift and is drained to the south by the Rio Grande, which rises in the San Juan Mountains to the west of the valley and flows south into New Mexico. The San Luis Valley has a cold desert climate but has substantial water resources from the Rio Grande and groundwater. The San Luis Valley was ceded to the United States by Mexico following the Mexican–American War. Hispanic settlers began moving north and settling in the valley after the United States made a treaty with the Utes and established a fort in the early 1850s. Prior to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Multi-junction Solar Cell
Multi-junction (MJ) solar cells are solar cells with multiple p–n junctions made of different semiconductor materials. Each material's p-n junction will produce electric current in response to different wavelengths of light. The use of multiple semiconducting materials allows the absorbance of a broader range of wavelengths, improving the cell's sunlight to electrical energy conversion efficiency. Traditional single-junction cells have a maximum theoretical efficiency of 33.16%. Theoretically, an infinite number of junctions would have a limiting efficiency of 86.8% under highly concentrated sunlight. As of 2008 the best lab examples of traditional crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells had efficiencies between 20% and 25%, while lab examples of multi-junction cells have demonstrated performance over 46% under concentrated sunlight. Commercial examples of tandem cells are widely available at 30% under one-sun illumination, and improve to around 40% under concentrated sunlight. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buildings And Structures In Alamosa County, Colorado
A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, and have been adapted throughout history for a wide number of factors, from building materials available, to weather conditions, land prices, ground conditions, specific uses, prestige, and aesthetic reasons. To better understand the term ''building'' compare the list of nonbuilding structures. Buildings serve several societal needs – primarily as shelter from weather, security, living space, privacy, to store belongings, and to comfortably live and work. A building as a shelter represents a physical division of the human habitat (a place of comfort and safety) and the ''outside'' (a place that at times may be harsh and harmful). Ever since the first cave paintings, buildings have also become objects or canvasses of much artistic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Energy Infrastructure Completed In 2012
In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: wikt:ἐνέργεια#Ancient_Greek, ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is #Energy transfer, transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and light. Energy is a Conservation law, conserved quantity—the law of conservation of energy states that energy can be Energy transformation, converted in form, but not created or destroyed. The unit of measurement for energy in the International System of Units (SI) is the joule (J). Common forms of energy include the kinetic energy of a moving object, the potential energy stored by an object (for instance due to its position in a Classical field theory, field), the elastic energy stored in a solid object, chemical energy associated with chemical reactions, the radiant energy carried by electromagnetic radiat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solar Power In The United States
Solar power includes solar farms as well as local distributed generation, mostly on rooftops and increasingly from community solar arrays. In 2021, utility-scale solar power generated 115 terawatt-hours (TWh), or 2.8% of electricity in the United States. Total solar generation that year, including estimated small-scale photovoltaic generation, was 164 TWh. As of the end of 2021, the United States had 121 gigawatts (GW) of installed photovoltaic and concentrated solar power capacity combined. This capacity is exceeded only by China and the European Union. In 2021, 36% of all new electricity generation capacity in the country came from solar, surpassed only by wind with 41%. By 2015, solar employment had overtaken oil and gas as well as coal employment in the United States. In 2020, more than 230,000 Americans were employed in the solar industry. The United States conducted much early research in photovoltaics and concentrated solar power. It is among the top countries ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solar Power In Colorado
Solar power in Colorado has grown rapidly, partly because of one of the most favorable net metering laws in the country, with no limit on the number of users. The state was the first in the nation to establish a Renewable Portfolio Standard for its electric utilities. Colorado consumers typically obtain varying amounts of solar power from rooftop solar, community solar gardens, and larger solar farms. Colorado is home to many solar installers which are ranked annually by the amount of power installed. Several thousand people are employed in solar-energy-related activities throughout the state. A few companies have attempted to establish solar panel manufacturing operations in Colorado: including Abound Solar, Ascent Solar, and Primestar Solar. Colorado was the first state where Dow introduced some of the earliest solar shingles. ThColorado Solar Energy Industries Association (COSEIA) a state affiliate of the national non-profit Solar Energy Industries Association, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Luis Valley Solar Ranch
The San Luis Valley Solar Ranch is a 30 megawatt ( MWAC) photovoltaic power station in the San Luis Valley, located near the town of Mosca, Colorado. It was the largest solar facility in the state when it came online at the end of 2011. The electricity is being sold to Public Service of Colorado, a subsidiary of Xcel Energy, under a 20-year power purchase agreement. Facility details The facility occupies about 220 acres of a 320-acre plot of previous agricultural farmland, and is the third utility-scale solar project to be completed in the sunny and cool San Luis Valley. It was developed and financed, and continues to be owned and operated, by the Spanish renewable energy company Iberdrola (now Avangrid in the US) which previously completed two wind energy projects in the state. The plant consists of about 110,000 SunPower E19-series panels (each rated about 320 Wp and 19% efficiency) that are mounted on single-axis trackers. Iberdrola contracted with Sun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hooper Solar PV Power Plant
The Hooper Solar PV Power Plant is a 50 megawatt ( MWAC) photovoltaic power station in the San Luis Valley, located near the town of Mosca, Colorado. It was the largest solar facility in the state when it came online at the end of 2015. The electricity is being sold to Public Service of Colorado, a subsidiary of Xcel Energy, under a long-term power purchase agreement. Facility details The facility occupies about 320 acres of previous agricultural farmland, and is located near several other large solar power plants in the sunny and cool San Luis Valley. It was developed and constructed by SunPower, and is owned by a subsidiary of the French company Total S.A. which is also the majority owner of SunPower. The plant is built using SunPower's Oasis Power Plant System, which includes single-axis tracking, robotic panel cleaning, and real-time monitoring at the company's operations center. Construction began in early 2015, and employed about 150 workers. Mortenson C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Touwsrivier CPV Solar Project
Touwsrivier CPV Solar Project is a 44 MWp (36 MWAC) concentrator photovoltaics (CPV) power station located 13 km outside the town of Touwsrivier in the Western Cape of South Africa. The installation reached full capacity in December 2014 and is the second largest operating CPV facility in the world. Electricity produced by the plant is fed into the national grid operated by Eskom under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA). Facility construction details The facility consists of 1500 dual-axis CX-S530-II solar tracking systems divided into 60 sections. The 25 systems of each section are connected in parallel to a central grid-connected 630 kW inverter. Each system supports 12 CX-M500 modules which are each rated to produce 2450 Wp. Each module contains 2,400 fresnel lenses to concentrate sunlight 500 times onto multi-junction solar cells, allowing a greater efficiency than other photovoltaic power plants. The facility is sited on 190 hect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hatch Solar Energy Center
The Hatch Solar Energy Center is a 5.88 MWp (5.0 MWAC) photovoltaic power station. It was built by Blattner Energy using 84 dual-axis trackers and Amonix 7700 concentrator photovoltaics (CPV) panels, each of which contains 7,560 fresnel lens to concentrate sunlight 500 times onto multijunction photovoltaic cells. It was the largest CPV facility in North America when it was completed in 2011. The facility was subsequently repowered with SunPower panels that use high-efficiency monocrystalline silicon Monocrystalline silicon, more often called single-crystal silicon, in short mono c-Si or mono-Si, is the base material for silicon-based discrete components and integrated circuits used in virtually all modern electronic equipment. Mono-Si also ... cells without concentration. The output is being sold to El Paso Electric, under a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA). Annual electricity production is expected to be about 11,000 MW·h/year. Electricity producti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NREL
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the US specializes in the research and development of renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy systems integration, and sustainable transportation. NREL is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Department of Energy and operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, a joint venture between MRIGlobal and Battelle. Located in Golden, Colorado, NREL is home to the National Center for Photovoltaics, the National Bioenergy Center, and the National Wind Technology Center. History The Solar Energy Research, Development and Demonstration Act of 1974 established the Solar Energy Research Institute, which opened in 1977 and was operated by MRIGlobal. Under the Jimmy Carter administration, its activities went beyond research and development in solar energy as it tried to popularize knowledge about already existing technologies, like passive solar. During the Ronald Reagan administration the ins ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Energy Information Administration
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System responsible for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating energy information to promote sound policymaking, efficient markets, and public understanding of energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment. EIA programs cover data on coal, petroleum, natural gas, electric, renewable and nuclear energy. EIA is part of the U.S. Department of Energy. Background The Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977 established EIA as the primary federal government authority on energy statistics and analysis, building upon systems and organizations first established in 1974 following the oil market disruption of 1973. EIA conducts a comprehensive data collection program that covers the full spectrum of energy sources, end uses, and energy flows; generates short- and long-term domestic and international energy projections; and performs informative energy analyses. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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