Canadian research and technology company, Shec Energy Inc, has developed concentrator and receiver technology that, it says, can generate power four times more efficiently than existing parabolic trough technologies, at half the cost. CSP Today speaks to SHEC Energy’s chief operating officer, Keith Rogers, to find out how they have achieved these results and when SHEC Energy’s technology will be hitting the market.

By Rikki Stancich in Paris

When they began researching applications for hydrogen fuel cells using solar technology back in 1996, SHEC Energy’s engineers were aiming to push operating temperatures as high as possible – up to around 850 degrees celcius.

Today, the automobile market for which its technology was originally designed remains elusive. However, its engineers have found a way to put the technology to good use: concentrating solar power generation.

Having developed a solar array, receivers and a heat transfer fluid that can handle working temperatures of around 800 degrees celcius, SHEC Energy is now looking to round-off its offering with a thermal storage solution.

With thermal storage under its belt, SHEC Energy will be a solar power generating force to reckon with. The company believes that in as few as 3-4 years, its technology will bring the levelised energy cost of solar thermal to fossil fuel parity.

CSP Today: What is the link between SHEC Energy’s CSP technology and the technology it originally developed to produce Syngas, or biofuel?

Keith Rogers: SHEC Energy originally developed its advanced high temperature solar technology for solar thermal chemical processes to produce syngas, which can be processed into a number of fuels. 

This requires temperatures significantly higher than are normally required for power generation. 

This has given SHEC Energy an advantage in producing significantly more efficient solar thermal electric power plants, in particular when using our high temperature thermal storage technology.

CSP Today: Can you please describe the solar thermal solution that has been developed by SHEC Energy?

Keith Rogers: SHEC Energy has developed a disruptive - next generation technology that dramatically decreases radiant energy (emissivity) losses.  SHEC Energy super concentrates sunlight to dramatically decrease the area from which energy can be radiated. 

The advanced solar receiver technology can be used in both point focus and solar tower designs to increase efficiency. 

In comparing this technology to trough systems, double the operating temperatures can be achieved, effectively doubling turbine efficiencies, particularly when employing thermal storage.

The power profile is significantly improved as well.  When factoring in seasonably longer days in the summer, about double or more collectable sun-hours are achievable depending on latitude. 

In effect, about 4 times the power can be generated from the same mirror collection area as a trough system.

We have analyzed the effect of the technology on levelized production costs of SHEC Energy versus parabolic trough operators in California. The capital and financing costs for SHEC Energy are projected to be $115 per MW-h versus $230 per MW-h for parabolic trough technology. 

The fixed operating and maintenance costs are similar to the parabolic trough plants. If the SHEC Energy plant were to fund the plant with 100% equity, the levelized cost of capital and financing drops to US$54 per MW-h.

CSP Today: SHEC Energy has devised its high-ratio solar concentrators in-house. What kind of technology and materials does it use in the solar array?

Keith Rogers: SHEC Energy uses glass. Super-concentration requires rigorous dimensional stability because we use an extremely small target area.

This is critical for minimizing radiant energy loss, particularly at high temperatures. Radiant energy loss increases with temperature to the fourth power.

Our concentrator design combined with our patented high temperature receiver allows us to operate with exceptionally high efficiencies at very high temperatures.   

CSP Today: Shec Energy has engineered a reflector manufacturing process that is apparently 30,000 times faster than bent glass manufacturing methods. How have you managed to speed the process to this degree?

Keith Rogers: When developing our technology, we recognized an issue with the delivery of parabolic mirrors. 

The ability of the supply chain to deliver parabolic mirrors in a timely fashion for commercial scale deployment was lacking.

The mirror forming time was 24 hours per processing oven.  SHEC Energy developed a proprietary process to resolve this supply chain problem by inventing a process to form the glass for these mirrors in only 45 minutes. 

This is 30 times faster than traditional mirror forming technologies. We cannot disclose any further details on this technology.

SHEC Energy has been awarded a grant for 25 million Euros to build a manufacturing plant in Germany to deploy this technology. This grant has to be matched in order for the manufacturing capability to be built.

This factory using our proprietary manufacturing technologies will substantially minimize production cost of our solar components.

CSP Today: What business model does SHEC Energy intend to adopt?

Keith Rogers: Owner-operator is definitely our preferred business model. But we would be willing – under special circumstances – to consider other options.

CSP Today: SHEC Energy has successfully run a pilot scheme for its CSP technology and apparently has entered an agreement to develop 3GW of solar energy (spread across six 500 MW plants). Are you able to disclose with whom the agreement was signed and where these solar fields will be constructed?

Keith Rogers: SHEC Energy successfully completed two years of field trials of its technology on a small-scale pilot plant at a test site in Arizona. 

This pilot plant featured a small-scale solar array, our ultra high efficiency solar receiver and solar aperture.  The solar array consisted of 25-curved mirrors that were formed using our rapid glass forming technology.

Performance data and mechanical integrity were verified. After two years of field trials, the solar receiver was dismantled and inspected.  It was in pristine condition.

SHEC Energy is currently working on or has signed MOUs for projects totaling close to 4 GW of solar energy.

These projects will be spread geographically in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. It is somewhat premature to discuss project specifics.

CSP Today: Given the operating temperatures, how easy is it to bolt SHEC Energy’s solution onto existing coal or gas-fired power stations?

Keith Rogers: It can be easily bolted on to existing power stations. But it could just as easily be a standalone Greenfield operation.

There are places in the world that have power facilities standing idle due to a lack of access to fossil fuels. We are very interested in these kinds of markets.

We also have significant interest from parties in Greenfield developments.

We are very interested in Integrated Solar Combined Cycle applications as well as straightforward brown or Greenfield operations.

CSP Today: Have any PPAs been signed on the back of the pilot? If so, which ones? If not are we likely to see any signed soon?

Keith Rogers: We expect to sign our first PPA for a relatively small project in the first quarter of this year. We are actively seeking PPA’s and expect to sign PPA’s equaling 200MW by mid 2010 and continue to add at least 200MW of additional PPA during each of the following five years.

CSP Today: Will thermal storage be an option in any of 2010’s deals?

Keith Rogers: Thermal Storage won’t be included in any of the 2010 deals. Part of the funding that we are looking to secure will be used to build a semi-commercial scale plant to test next-generation technologies, which includes thermal storage.

It’s technically challenging – to generate enough solar power for a 24-hour period, the solar field needs to be 3x as efficient during daylight hours.

CSP Today: SHEC Energy recently collaborated with Emerson Process Management. What advantage will this confer on Shec Energy's solution?

Keith Rogers: Our goal is to provide the lowest cost renewable energy anywhere in the world. To accomplish this, our plants will be outfitted with state-of-the art process controls and field sensors.

Emerson’s world-class process controls architecture, Delta V, will be used for distributive controls, safety instrument systems, interlocking and alarm monitoring.

The Delta V system will be seamlessly integrated with a built-in Intelligent Device Manager that will fully implement predictive diagnostics in real time to improve plant availability and reduce maintenance costs.

The control strategy that will be implemented for our plants will include intelligent (Highway Addressable Remote Transducer - capable) field sensors, transmitters, control valves and instrumentation that will be remotely accessible for troubleshooting by SHEC Energy experts regardless of plant location.

This will greatly reduce commissioning and maintenance expenses while improving plant reliability.

CSP Today: Can you give some idea of how much more efficient Delta V would make the balance of plant operations and maintenance in terms of cost savings?

Keith Rogers: Used in other applications, such as refineries and chemical plants, Delta V has delivered cost savings of up to a couple of percentage points – which is a substantial amount of money.

The relationship between SHEC and Emerson is very exciting – we are working on a tailored solution together.

CSP Today: Shec Energy’s solar thermal technology also has a hydrogen application. Can you explain how the Dry Fuel Reformation (DFR) process works?

Keith Rogers: We use the heat energy of the sun from our solar technology to drive a thermo catalytic process.  We are able to dry reform methane in a two-step process. 

The first step, driven by solar energy at 850C, is used to convert methane to syngas.  In the second step we convert the syngas into hydrogen. 

When using methane generated from landfills, the process is carbon neutral and prevents harmful methane emission from entering the atmosphere, which is 21 times more potent as a green house gas compared to carbon dioxide.

With the hydrogen market still developing, SHEC Energy’s primary focus is on power generation.