Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project

Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project
Map
CountryUnited States
LocationTonopah, Nye County, Nevada
Coordinates38°14′00″N 117°22′01″W / 38.2333°N 117.367°W / 38.2333; -117.367
StatusPost-bankruptcy reorganization, restart
Construction began2011; 13 years ago (2011)
Commission date2016; 8 years ago (2016)[1]
Construction cost$975 million
OwnersTonopah Solar Energy, LLC (SolarReserve, LLC)
OperatorVinci SA[2]
Solar farm
Type
CSP technologySolar power tower
Collectors10347 × 115.72 m2
Total collector area296 acres (1,200,000 m2)
Site resource2,685 kW·h/m2/yr[3]
Site area1,670 acres (676 ha)
Power generation
Units operational1
Make and modelAlstom
Nameplate capacity110 MW
Capacity factor51.9% (planned)
20.3% (2018)
Annual net output196 GW·h over 1 year (2018)
Storage capacity1,100 MW·he
External links
WebsiteCrescent Dunes
CommonsRelated media on Commons
[edit on Wikidata]

The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project is a solar thermal power project with an installed capacity of 110 megawatt (MW)[4] and 1.1 gigawatt-hours of energy storage[1] located near Tonopah, about 190 miles (310 km) northwest of Las Vegas.[5][6] Crescent Dunes is the first commercial concentrated solar power (CSP) plant with a central receiver tower and advanced molten salt energy storage technology at full scale (110 MW), following the experimental Solar Two and Gemasolar in Spain at 50 MW. As of 2023, it is operated by its new owner; ACS, and in a new contract with NV Energy, it now supplies solar energy at night only, drawing on thermal energy stored each day.[7]

Startup energy venture company SolarReserve (created via seed funding), US Renewables Group, and United Technologies were the original owners of Tonopah Solar Energy LLC, the owner and operator of the Crescent Dunes plant. The Crescent Dunes project was subsequently backed by a $737 million in U.S. government loan guarantees and by Tonopah partnering with Cobra Thermosolar Plants, Inc. The overall venture had a projected cost of less than $1 billion.[8][9] The plant suffered several design, construction and technical problems and, having not produced power since April 2019, its sole customer, NV Energy, subsequently terminated its contract. Bloomberg reported that NV Energy was not allowed to sever its agreement with the plant until after the DoE took over the shuttered plant in August 2019.[10][11]

Since the initial failure of the Crescent Dunes project, SolarReserve took down its website and is believed to have permanently ceased operations.[12][13] Upon the developer's silence as the involved parties sought legal recourse, the plant's exact status was publicly unknown for some time and was left to conjecture.[14][15][16]

While proceeding through its subsequent bankruptcy proceedings, Tonopah Solar Energy stated that it had hopes for a restart of the Crescent Dunes plant by the end of 2020.[17][18] According to court documents, Tonopah is owned by SolarReserve, Cobra Energy Investment LLC, a division of Spanish construction company ACS Group and Banco Santander, S.A.[19] On September 11, 2020, the bankruptcy court approved Tonopah Solar Energy's disclosure statement. On December 3, 2020, the Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan was confirmed by the court.[20] As one result of this plan's confirmation, Cobra now has operational control of the plant.[18] In July 2021, the project restarted production for NV Energy.[21]

  1. ^ a b "Crescent Dunes 24-Hour Solar Tower Is Online". CleanTechnica. February 22, 2016. Retrieved June 15, 2016.
  2. ^ "VINCI completes the acquisition of ACS's energy business (Cobra IS)" (Press release). globalnewswire. December 31, 2021. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
  3. ^ Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
  4. ^ "Crescent Dunes Solar Thermal Power Plant". Grupo COBRA. 2016. Archived from the original on June 4, 2016. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  5. ^ "Energy Department Finalizes $737 Million Loan Guarantee to Tonopah Solar Energy for Nevada Project" (Press release). Loan Programs Office (LPO), Dept. of Energy (DOE). September 28, 2011. Retrieved July 2, 2014.
  6. ^ "Crescent Dunes: Project Under Construction". Loan Programs Office (LPO), Dept. of Energy (DOE). September 1, 2015. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  7. ^ What happened with Crescent Dunes?
  8. ^ "US Taxpayer Backed Tonopah Solar Energy Files for Bankruptcy Protection - SWFI".
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference gtm-2011-09-29 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Delbert, Caroline (January 10, 2020). "The $1 Billion Solar Plant Is an Obsolete, Expensive Flop". www.popularmechanics.com. Hearst Digital Media. Archived from the original on January 21, 2021. Retrieved January 27, 2022. Bloomberg reports that even though the plant shut down in April 2019, NV Energy was not allowed to sever its agreement with the plant until late in 2019, after the DoE was forced to take over the shuttered plant in August. SolarReserve took the DoE to court.
  11. ^ Schulz, Bailey (October 7, 2019). Cook, Glenn (ed.). "Tonopah solar plant could end up in bankruptcy, developer says". www.reviewjournal.com. Las Vegas: J. Keith Moyer. Archived from the original on October 8, 2019. Retrieved February 26, 2020. ... major decisions — such as bankruptcy proceedings — require a unanimous vote from the managers, the lawsuit alleges that the Energy Department can determine the fate of Tonopah Solar Energy without any representation of SolarReserve on the board
  12. ^ "America's Concentrated Solar Power Companies Have All but Disappeared". www.greentechmedia.com. Retrieved September 17, 2023.
  13. ^ "The closure of SolarReserve, an isolated case of the concentrated solar power industry | REVE News of the wind sector in Spain and in the world". February 7, 2020.
  14. ^ "A $1 Billion Solar Plant Was Obsolete Before It Ever Went Online". Bloomberg.com. January 6, 2020.
  15. ^ "EDITORIAL: Future of Crescent Dunes solar plant near Tonopah appears bleak". October 9, 2019.
  16. ^ "NV Energy sends termination notice to massive Tonopah solar project, developer accuses Energy Department of taking over". The Nevada Independent. October 6, 2019.
  17. ^ "Bankrupt Solar Project Owner Hopes for Year-End Restart - Law360".
  18. ^ a b "Post bankruptcy, Crescent Dunes CSP plant owner wants project back online by year's end". August 3, 2020.
  19. ^ "Tonopah Solar Energy files for bankruptcy". July 30, 2020.
  20. ^ "Del. Court Confirms $1B Nev. Solar Plant's Ch. 11 Plan - Law360".
  21. ^ "Solar plant near Tonopah producing power for NV Energy after stop during bankruptcy". KLAS. October 14, 2021. Retrieved November 7, 2021.