KJCT8.com - Grand Junction, Montrose - Weather, News, Sports | Solar will help power Cameo plant
Member Center:
CAMEO, Colo. (KJCT) -- Developing green technology is part of Xcel Energy's strategy, and the company hopes a new addition to the Cameo power plant will take clean coal technology to a cleaner level.
Company officials, as well as legislators and workers with Abengoa Solar, were all on hand to break ground on a new solar grid which will become the first of it's kind in the world.
What makes the new project unique isn't the solar technology itself, but the integration it will have with the existing coal-fired portion of the power plant.
By choosing a smaller plant like Cameo to test this technology, Xcel hopes to one day be able to expand this type of integration to its larger coal plants.
"We're looking at all sorts of options to help us extend the lives of our coal plants because coal is still a very good resource for us in this country," Xcel's Energy Supply President David Wilks said. "We can also reduce the carbon emissions by using solar energy and this project will help demonstrate that we can actually do that successfully."
According to project officials, the emissions can be cut by thousands of tons per year.
The solar technology will add about 4 megawatts of electricity to the plant's current output... That's an increase of around 10 percent.
Construction is set to start within the month and the project should be complete by the end of the year.
Comments Terms of Use: We welcome your participation in our community. Please keep your comments civil and on point. You must be at least 13 years of age to post comments. By submitting a comment, you agree to these
Terms of Service
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Login or register See all comments |
