Tri-Lateral Noor al Salaam High Concentration Solar Central Receiver Program

Abstract

This report documents the efforts conducted primarily under the Noor al Salaam (“Light of Peace”) program under DOE GRANT NUMBER DE-FC36-02GO12030, together with relevant technical results from a closely related technology development effort, the U.S./Israel Science and Technology Foundation (USISTF) High Concentration Solar Central Receiver program. These efforts involved preliminary design, development, and test of selected prototype power production subsystems and documentation of an initial version of the system definition for a high concentration solar hybrid/gas electrical power plant be built in Zaafarana, Egypt as a first step in planned commercialization. A major part of the planned work was halted in 2007 with an amendment in October 2007 requiring that we complete the technical effort by December 31, 2007 and provide a final report DOE within the following 90 days. This document summarizes the work conducted. The USISTF program was a 50/50 cost-shared program supported by the Department of Commerce through the U.S./Israel Science and Technology Commission (USISTC). The USISTC was cooperatively developed by President Clinton and the late Prime Minister Rabin of Israel to encourage technological collaboration and support peace in the Middle East through economic The program was conducted as a follow-on effort Israel'smore » Magnet/CONSOLAR Program, which was an advanced development effort design, fabricate, and test a solar central receiver and secondary optics for a beam down central receiver concept. The status of these hardware development programs is reviewed, since they form the basis for the Noor al Salaam program. Descriptions are provided of the integrated system and the major subsystems, including the heliostat, the high temperature air receiver, the power conversion unit, tower and tower reflector, compound parabolic concentrator, and the master control system. One objective of the USISTF program was conduct marketing research, identify opportunities for use of this technology, and the extent possible, secure an agreement leading a pre-commercialization demonstration or prototype plant. This was accomplished with the agreement conduct the Noor al Salaam program as a tri-lateral project between Egypt, Israel, and the U.S. The tri-lateral project was led by the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH); this included the Egyptian New and Renewable Energy Authority and the Israeli USISTC participants. This project, known was Noor al Salaam, was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Department of Energy (DOE). The Egyptian activity was under the auspices of the Egyptian Ministry of Energy and Electricity, New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) as part of Egypt's plans for renewable energy development. The objective of the Noor al Salaam project was develop the conditions necessary obtain funding and construct and operate an approximately 10 20 Megawatt hybrid solar/natural gas demonstration power plant in Zaafarana, Egypt that could serve both as a test bed for advanced solar technology evaluations, and as a forerunner commercial plant designs. This plant, termed Noor Al Salaam, or “Light of Peace”, reached the initial phase of system definition before being curtailed, in part by changes in USAID objectives, coupled with various delays that were beyond the scope of the program resolve. The background of the USISTF technology development and pre-commercialization effort is provided in this report, together with documentation of the technology developments conducted under the Noor al Salaam program. It should be noted that only a relatively small part of the Noor al Salaam funding was expended over the approximately five years for which UAH was prime contractor before the program was ordered closed (Reference 1) so that the remaining funds could be returned USAID.« less