The technology began on these tropical islands, and currently it has come home to roost, however in an exceedingly nice way.

On Dec. 10, the Huge Island can power up a 4-acre solar farm based on Sopogy technology, that was spun off as Keahole Solar Power LLC to develop the project.

Located on Honolulu, Sopogy’s five hundred-kilowatt concentrating solar array, that is more efficient than solar photovoltaic systems, will deliver enough electricity to the Big Island’s power grid to serve 250 homes, according to state energy agency estimates.

This amount will help forestall 808 metric tons of carbon dioxide from oil-burning power plants (for that Hawaii is justly infamous), which is the same as preserving nearly 8 acres of forest, planting 20,176 trees, or eliminating 154 cars from the road. In 2007, Hawaii’s generation mix stood at 68.four-p.c oil, and 12.five % coal, with solely 4.five-p.c delivered from renewable resources like solar, wind, geothermal and biomass.

Sopogy’s 4-acre solar farm, comprised of one,000 collectors regarding twelve feet long and 5 feet wide, will additionally eliminate the need to buy two,000 barrels of oil, a development that state energy administrator Ted Peck known as “exciting”.

The technology itself relies on troughs, or 0.5-barrel-shaped solar collectors, which catch, mirror and concentrate the sun’s energy on a central assortment bar. The system will head liquids up to 400 degrees (Fahrenheit), and the warmth from the liquid used to produce steam to operate a turbine.

The array is being placed alongside Hawaii’s Natural Energy Laboratory (south of Kona International Airport), however a forty four,572-square-foot pilot project in July, built by Sopogy and Helio Dynamics (a concentrating solar manufacturer), underneath the auspices of Southern California Gas (a division of Sempra Energy), proved the technology viable and compared Sopogy’s concentrating solar to larger concentrating trough arrays like Andasol 1 because the “PC size in concentrating solar generation” (as opposed to mainframes).

Sopogy’s collector, originally designed as the SopoFlare™ and destined for the commercial/industrial rooftop market as a substitute for solar thermal (solar hot water heating) or photovoltaic technologies, was developed together with an integrated roof rack mounting system.

All Sopogy’s offerings are primarily based on its MicroCSP™ technology, which can be utilized in place of, or hybridized with, power generation systems, chiller (or AC) systems, process heat recovery devices, and even in desalination.

Originally founded in 2002 by Hawaiian-primarily based Energy Industries (an energy product developer) as an energy ideas incubator at the Energy Laboratories web site, Sopogy has gone on to become an innovator, providing a product that prices less to manufacture than solar photovoltaic, with regarding twice the efficiency. And, while not as economical as utility-scale solar thermal collections systems, is less costly, provides for energy storage in the dark and on cloudy days, and offers the hope that someday the technology can be out there in residential roof-sized units.

Sopogy is wanting ahead to a 50-megawatt project in Spain, and its sister entity, Keahole, is hoping to develop 30 megawatts of concentrating solar thermal throughout the Islands in the following six years.

This article comes courtesy of coolerplanet.com


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