Enel Green Power, SkyFuel; NextEra Energy Resources, Pacific Gas & Electric Company; Sopogy; GE Energy Financial Services

SkyFuel provides its expertise for hybrid plant

Solar thermal power technology specialist SkyFuel has shared that all equipment for the solar troughs has been delivered for a hybrid plant in the U. S. that is going to integrate solar thermal power with geothermal.

SkyFuel is the technology provider for the parabolic trough solar field being integrated into the heating loop of Enel Green Power’s North America’s Stillwater geothermal power plant.

The system is expected to be operational by the end of this year.

Enel Green Power’s Head of Innovation Scouting and Selection, Fabrizio Bizzarri, mentioned that the plan is to integrate thermodynamic solar power into a geothermal plant, using solar power to increase heating of geothermal fluid. According to SkyFuel, the solar field is designed to return the temperature of the brine from the geothermal wells to its original design point and thus recapture the full capacity of the existing turbine generator.

NextEra celebrates opening of 250MW facility

NextEra Energy Resources last week announced the official dedication of the company’s Genesis Solar Energy Centre.

The facility, located in Riverside County, California, is capable of generating 250 MW of solar power. It is located on approximately 1,950 acres of land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The facility has been built, owned and operated by a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources,

The power generated is provided to Pacific Gas & Electric Company under a long-term contract.

The solar facility, which features two identical 125-MW generating units, entered service in November last year and March this year, respectively.

Since breaking ground in January 2011, the project employed approximately 1,700 construction workers.

Sopogy shuts down

In a setback for Sopogy, a concentrating solar thermal technology company in the U. S., is reportedly undergoing “an insolvency proceeding with its assets currently being liquidated”.

According to a report filed by Pacific Business News, the company has shut down its operations and has debts of about $1.2 million.

The entity was founded by Darren Kimura in 2002 as a technology out of Energy Labs. Sopogy focused on bringing the economics of large scale CSP to the distributed generation markets. Kimura left the roles of Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer at Sopogy last year.

Milestone for GE’s energy investing business

GE Energy Financial Services, the group’s energy investing business, has crossed $10 billion in renewable energy investment commitments globally.

The entity highlighted that its renewable energy projects can generate 17 GW of electricity. Since forming its renewable energy unit in 2006, the group has invested an average of $1 billion a year.

Of the more than $10 billion in cumulative renewable energy equity and debt investment commitments, $1.7 billion are in 1GW of solar power installations. GE Energy Financial Services expects it will continue to invest more than $1 billion annually in solar and other renewable energy projects.