POWER October 2010 - 9

2. Two ways about it. Australia's Horizon Power opened the country's
first hybrid solar-diesel power station near Marble Bar, Western
Australia, one of the nation's hottest regions. The plant supplements harvested
energy from 1,008 solar panels, shown here at night, with diesel
power, using stored inertial energy during the transition as the diesel
comes up to speed. Courtesy: Horizon Energy
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3. From the eye of Ra. The Egyptian New and Renewable Energy
Authority will this fall put into operation a 150-MW solar thermal-
natural gas hybrid that features nearly 2,000 parabolic trough collectors
(130,000 square meters of mirror surface). The plant at Kuraymat, 95
kilometers south of Cairo, is generating interest from developers of
the Desertec project, a €400 billion initiative that seeks to harvest solar
thermal power for Europe from North Africa via high-voltage transmission
lines. Courtesy: Flagsol
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Solar hybrid plants are quickly gaining popularity around the
world. At the end of June, Xcel Energy fired up a demonstration
integrating a 4-MW parabolic trough system and an existing 44-MW
coal-fired power plant (see " Xcel Energy Fires Up Solar/Coal Hybrid
Demonstration " in POWER's September issue for more details). Last
year, Israeli company AORA commissioned a 100-kW solar tower
that uses compressed air to drive a micro-turbine. That company
says the microturbine can also be run on biodiesel, natural gas,
and biogas.
This fall, meanwhile, a 150-MW solar-natural gas hybrid is expected
to be fully operational at Kuraymat, 95 km south of Egypt's
capital, Cairo (Figure 3). The €250 million plant, being built on the
banks of the Nile River, involves a parabolic trough solar field with
nearly 2,000 collector units (130,000 square meters of mirror surface).
It will also feature a natural gas generator to ensure that the
plant can generate power around the clock. The plant's owner, the
Egyptian New and Renewable Energy Authority, hopes the project
will lead North Africa's drive to build large renewable installations. It
has already generated interest: Blue-chip European firms backing the
€400 billion Desertec project are hoping that the Egyptian plant will
serve as a template for the initiative that would connect a network
October 2010 | POWER
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POWER October 2010

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