Cameo coal power plant. (Image credit: tomorrowhillfarm.com)

Xcel Energy, the largest electric utility company in Colorado, has chosen Abengoa Solar to build a demonstration solar thermal power plant to work alongside an existing coal powered power plant, the Cameo power plant, near Grand Junction. This will be the first project to integrate solar thermal power and coal power on an industrial scale.

About a month from now the construction is expected to start, and the new plant is expected to be operational by the end of the year. This project is part of the Innovative Clean Technology program, started by Xcel Energy and the Colorado Public Utilities Commission.

The main goal of this project is to prove that heat energy produced by the solar thermal power plant can significantly increase the efficiency of a conventional power plant, while lowering carbon emissions at the same time. If this integration proves successful it will be used as a mode for future such projects around the world. This will significantly help the overal environment protection effort.

The solar thermal power plant will have about 4 MW of installed capacity and will be using Abengoa's state-of-the-art parabolic trough collectors. Parabollic trough technology can be used for both generating electricity and heat generation, since the concept involves the transfer of concentrated sunlight energy to a heat storage fluid, such as water or oil. Heat stored this way can be used in a number of ways – superheated steam, air and water heating, air conditioning power system, etc.