Solar Energy Generating Systems

Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) is a concentrated solar power plant in California, United States. With the combined capacity from three separate locations at 354 megawatt (MW), it was for thirty years the world's largest solar thermal energy generating facility, until the commissioning of the even larger Ivanpah facility in 2014. It was also for thirty years the world's largest solar generating facility of any type of technology, until the commissioning of the photovoltaic Topaz Solar Farm in 2014. It consisted of nine solar power plants in California's Mojave Desert, where insolation is among the best available in the United States.

SEGS I–II (44 MW) were located at Daggett (); they have been replaced with a solar photovoltaic farm.

SEGS III–VII (150 MW) were installed at Kramer Junction (); all five SEGS have undergone demolition.

SEGS VIII–IX (160 MW) are located at Harper Lake ().The Energy Blog: About Parabolic Trough Solar NextEra Energy Resources operates and partially owns the plants located at Kramer Junction. On January 26, 2018, the SEGS VIII and IX at Harper Lake were sold to renewable energy company Terra-Gen, LLC.

A tenth plant (SEGS X, 80 MW) had been in construction and SEGS XI and SEGS XII had been planned by Luz Industries, but the developer filed for bankruptcy in 1992, because it was unable to secure construction financing. The site of SEGS X was later licensed for a solar photovoltaic farm, Lockhart Solar PV II.

Most of the thermal facilities were retired by 2021, and photovoltaics were built on the same sites.

Plants' scale and operations Before retirement and replacement of SEGS I-VII with solar photovoltaics, the plants had a 354 MW net (394 MW gross) installed capacity. The nameplate capacity, which operating continuously, would dеliver the samе net power output, coming only from the solar source was around , representing a 21% capacity factor. In addition, the turbines could be utilized at night by burning natural gas.

NextEra claimed in 2009 that the solar plants could power 232,500 homеs (during the day, at peak power) and displace 3,800 tons of pollution pеr year that would have been produced if the electricity had been providеd by fossil fuels, such as oil.

The facilities had a total of 936,384 mirrors and cover more than . Lined up, the parabolic mirrors would have extended 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 (4.6 cents per kilowatt hour)."Reducing the Cost of Energy from Parabolic Trough Solar Power Plants", NREL, 2003

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 sun shines on glass panels, 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 (instead of water) 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.Solar Electricity Generation in California 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.

+ SEGS plant history and operational data (1985–1990) Plant Year built Location Turbine capacity Field area Oil temperature Gross solar production of electricity (MWh) Net (MW) Gross (MW) (m2) (°C) 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 SEGS I1984Daggett14 1482,96030719,26122,51025,05516,92723,52721,491 SEGS II1985Daggett30 33190,338316 25,08523,43138,91443,86239,156 SEGS III1986Kramer Jct.30 33230,300349 49,44461,47563,09669,410 SEGS IV1986Kramer Jct.30 33230,300349 52,18164,76270,55274,661 SEGS V1987Kramer Jct.30 33250,500349 62,85865,28072,449 SEGS VI1988Kramer Jct.30 35 188,000390 48,04562,690 SEGS VII1988Kramer Jct.30 35194,280390 38,86857,661 SEGS VIII1989Harper Lake80 89464,340390 114,996 SEGS IX1990Harper Lake80 89483,960390 5,974 Total 354 394 2,314,978 19,26147,595150,111244,937353,230518,487Sources: Solargenix Energy, KJC Operating Company, IEEE, NRELSolar Electric Generating Station IX. NREL + SEGS plant history and operational data (1991–2002) Gross solar production of electricity (MWh) Plant 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 average 1998–2002 Total SEGS I20,25217,93820,36820,19419,80019,87919,22818,68611,25017,23517,94717,40216,500 348,950 SEGS II35,16832,48136,88236,56635,85335,99534,81733,83633,40831,20732,49731,51132,500 571,696 SEGS III60,13448,70258,24856,89256,66364,17064,67770,59870,68965,99469,36966,12568,555 995,686 SEGS IV64,60051,00758,93557,79554,92961,97064,50371,63571,14263,45764,84270,31368,278 1,017,283 SEGS V59,00955,38367,68566,25563,75771,43975,93675,22970,29373,81071,82673,23572,879 1,014,444 SEGS VI64,15547,08755,72456,90863,65071,40970,01967,35871,06668,54367,33964,48367,758 878,476 SEGS VII58,37346,94054,11053,25161,22070,13869,18667,65166,25864,19564,21062,19665,048 834,986 SEGS VIII102,464109,361130,999134,578133,843139,174136,410137,905135,233140,079137,754138,977137,990 1,691,773 SEGS IX144,805129,558130,847137,915138,959141,916139,697119,732107,513128,315132,051137,570125,036 1,594,852Total608,960538,458613,798620,358628,674676,091674,473662,631636,851652,835657,834662,542654,539 8,967,123Sources: Solargenix Energy, KJC Operating Company, IEEE, NREL

+ SEGS plant history and operational data (2003–2014) Net solar production of electricity (MWh) Plant 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Average 2003–2014 Total SEGS I 6,913 8,421 6,336 5,559 0 10,705 9,033 10,648 11,164 11,666 9,403 8,583 8,203 98,431 SEGS II 11,142 14,582 13,375 7,547 5,445 28,040 18,635 22,829 26,198 25,126 23,173 7,611 16,975 203,703 SEGS III 59,027 64,413 56,680 51,721 59,480 69,012 62,971 60,029 61,350 56,877 56,824 54,407 59,399 712,791 SEGS IV 58,100 62,006 56,349 52,439 59,799 69,338 63,563 63,084 57,684 62,414 58,317 54,321 59,785 717,414 SEGS V 61,921 67,717 62,309 53,471 59,547 69,316 59,820 54,328 60,451 62,877 57,758 56,354 60,489 725,869 SEGS VI 50,504 53,618 51,827 45,076 65,832 67,156 62,750 63,576 59,327 56,082 52,539 50,547 56,570 678,834 SEGS VII 49,154 50,479 46,628 42,050 58,307 65,185 58,950 58,836 57,378 54,147 48,183 46,762 53,005 636,059 SEGS VIII 119,357 124,089 120,282 117,451 122,676 135,492 131,474 155,933 152,463 145,247 141,356 145,525 134,279 1,611,345 SEGS IX 115,541 123,605 120,915 117,310 122,699 150,362 139,756 163,899 160,506 164,203 154,082 147,883 140,063 1,680,761Total 531,659 568,930 534,701 492,624 553,785 664,606 606,952 653,162 646,521 638,639 601,635 571,993 588,767 7,065,207

+ SEGS plant history and operational data (2015–2021) Net solar production of electricity (MWh) Plant 2015 2016 2017 2018201920202021 Total Total1985–2021 SEGS IEIA Electricity Data Browser - SEGS I 12,562 dec. (PV) (PV) (PV)(PV)(PV) 12,562 459,943 SEGS IIEIA Electricity Data Browser - SEGS II dec. dec. (PV) (PV) (PV)(PV)(PV) 0 775,399 SEGS IIIEIA Electricity Data Browser - SEGS III 52,073 46,582 44,115 43,849 38,2420dec.224,861 1,933,518 SEGS IVEIA Electricity Data Browser - SEGS IV 53,117 49,034 43,182 44,406 41,8650dec.231,604 1,969,301 SEGS VEIA Electricity Data Browser - SEGS V 52,646 50,142 43,934 47,383 41,4240dec. 235,529 1,975,842 SEGS VIEIA Electricity Data Browser - SEGS VI 46,937 40,923 36,380 34,262 00dec. 158,502 1,715,812 SEGS VIIEIA Electricity Data Browser - SEGS VII 37,771 30,480 32,601 27,956 00dec. 128,808 1,599,852 SEGS VIIIEIA Electricity Data Browser - SEGS VIII 138,149 140,849 123,451 132,871 120,530114,55781,699 852,106 4,189,538 SEGS IXEIA Electricity Data Browser - SEGS IX 145,863 142,867 131,268 137,564 124,375122,045116,013 919,995 4,161,294Total 539,118 500,877 454,931 468,291 366,254236,602197,712 2,754,405 18,780,499 In 2017, SEGS I was replaced by PV system Sunray 2, and SEGS II by PV system Sunray 3.

Harper Lake Until Ivanpah Solar Power Facility was commissioned in 2014, SEGS VIII and SEGS IX, located at were the largest solar thermal power plants individually and collectively in the world.Jones, J. (2000), "Solar Trough Power Plants", National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Retrieved 2010-01-04. 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 would have had 80 MW of installed capacity. Abengoa Solar recently constructed the 280MW Mojave Solar Project (MSP) adjacent to the SEGS VIII and SEGS IX plants.Abengoa Solar - The Mojave Solar Project The MSP also uses concentrating solar thermal trough technology.

Starting in February 2020, SEGS VIII no longer burned natural gas. The last production month was October 2021. SEGS IX stopped burning natural gas starting in October 2020, except for January 2021.

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 (DNR) is 7.44 kWh/m2/day (310 W/m2), one of the best in the nation. This was the location of SEGS II - VII, which were retired in 2019. As of 2021, they were going to be replaced with a new solar photovoltaic array called Resurgence I.

Daggett SEGS I and II were located at and owned by Cogentrix Energy (Carlyle Group).SUNRAY/SEGS SEGS II was shut down in 2014 and was replaced by Sunray 3 (EIA plant code 10438), a 13,8 MW photovoltaic system. SEGS I was shut down one year later and replaced by 20 MW PV system Sunray 2 (EIA plant code 10437).California Solar Energy Statistics & DataPermit approved for solar facility Sunray 2 and Sunray 3 started production in 2017 as per EIA data.

Accidents and incidents In February 1999, a mineral oil storage tank exploded at the SEGS I (Daggett) solar power plant, sending flames and smoke into the sky. Authorities were trying to keep flames away from two adjacent containers that held sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide. The immediate area of was evacuated.Storage Tank at Solar Power Plant in Desert Explodes; Immediate Area Is Evacuated

Solar Energy Generating Systems

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