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Electricity generation in the world of nuclear power industry 81

Fig. 3.15 Ariel view of the largest in the world concentrated solar thermal power plant—the
Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, Mojave Desert, CA, United States [1]. Installed
capacities: Gross—392MW el and net—377MW el ; capacity factor 31%; planned annual
2
generation 1040GWh; site area 16km (4000 acres); deploys 173,500 sun-tracking heliostats,
2
each has 2 mirrors (reflecting surface area is 7.02 2¼14.04m ; total reflecting area is
2
2
2.4km ). The intercepted average solar heat flux is about 310W per m . However, after taking
into consideration reflection, transmission, radiation and absorption losses, it is about 170W per
2
m (efficiency is 55%). The heliostat mirrors focusing sunlight on receivers located on solar
power towers ( 140-m height). The receivers generate steam to drive single-casing reheat
turbines ( 130MW (174,000hp)). Gross thermal efficiency of the plant is 29%. The plant is
equipped with air-cooled condensers. The project cost is 2.2 billion USD. The electricity
generated by the complex is enough to serve more than 140,000 homes in California during
peak hours of a day. The plant will reduce carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions by more than
400,000 metric tonnes per year. Negative impact: (a) birds killed by burning and due
to crashing into mirrors ( 6000 birds were killed per year); and (b) cannot operate at night
(no thermal storage system). Also, a couple of years ago, the plant has torched itself due to
unexpected lowering high-intensity solar beams by computer at one tower.
Wikimedia Commons: photo by Craig Butz; Wikipedia, October 10, 2017.

Brazil is a very good example of using hydro power in a large scale (Fig. 3.3I).
However, within last years, the usage of hydro power for electricity generation has
decreased from 84% to 65%, but, at the same time, other renewables such as wind
and biomass have started to be more visible sources for electricity generation. In spite
of the latter, Brazil has also increased the usage of coal and gas.
Canada is another example after Brazil in terms of using hydro power on a large
scale for electricity generation (about 61–63% for a number of years) (Fig. 3.3J). In
addition, more electricity is coming from other renewables. Due to that Canada has
managed to decrease usage of coal from 15% to 11%.