The odds are about to get better that the next time you tour a coal-fired power plant you’ll hear something like this: “And if everyone in the group will look up, you’ll see our solar panels doing their part to keep our plant running tip-top.” Sounds strange, but it’s true.

Those odds are even higher if you live in New Mexico, where the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association struck a deal with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to incorporate solar power into its coal-fired operation. It seems some coal industrialists have noticed that solar energy can produce steam as well, and if it can do that, it can help to spin turbines and make electricity.

This may seem like a match made in purgatory — and in some ways I suppose it is — but it is intended as a way to supplement the power generation of the coal plant so that less coal can be used and less greenhouse gases emitted.

Ausra, a California-based solar thermal company, has decided to play nice with its still dominant competitors in the energy field. The company recently decided to design and manufacture solar steam generating systems to work in conjunction with fossil-fuel power plants in order to increase the plant’s overall power generation and reduce the amount of fossil fuels actually used to meet the plant’s demand.

EPRI’s Escalante Station in New Mexico will be the proving ground.

Source: energymatters.com

Photo credit: Escalante Station, Tri-State Generation and Transmission

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Posted on March 4th in Solar News by Dan.