Ashalim_Power_Station

Ashalim Power Station

Ashalim Power Station

Concentrated solar thermal power station in Israel

The Ashalim power station is a concentrated solar power station in the Negev desert near the kibbutz of Ashalim, south of the district city of Be'er Sheva in Israel. It consists of three plots with three different technologies the station combines 3 kinds of energy: solar thermal energy, photovoltaic energy, and natural gas.[1][2]

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Ashalim Plot A (Negev Energy) is a 121 megawatt parabolic trough plant with 4.5 hours of thermal energy storage.[3][4]

The Ashalim Plot B (Megalim) hosts a solar power tower. It has an installed capacity of 121 megawatts,[5] concentrating 50,600 computer-controlled heliostats enough to power 120,000 homes. Electricity production commenced in September 2019,[3] producing 320 GWhr of energy per year.[6] The project was a joint venture between Brightsource and Alstom. The station was the tallest solar power tower in the world at a height of 260 meters including the boiler[7] but was recently surpassed by the 262.44 meter tall solar power tower at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.[8]

Ashalim Plot C is a 30MW photovoltaic plant, commissioned in 2018, one year before the CSP plants.[9]

In 2019 EDF Renewables won a tender for another NIS 150 ($43) million PV plant at a record low price of 8.68 agorot (3 cents) per kilowatt hour.[10]

Reasons for building the power station

According to a press release of the National Infrastructure Minister of Israel, the establishment has several motivations:

  1. Economic motivation: reducing imports thus balancing the trade and releasing foreign currency.
  2. Political motivation: reducing strategic dependence on foreign energy sources.
  3. Environmental motivation: reducing contamination levels.
  4. Scientific motivation: pushing forward local technology and science, adapting new technologies from abroad.

Cost concerns

The concentrated solar power project in Ashalim was announced in 2008 and awarded in a competitive auction 2012 at NIS0.79 ($0.22) per kilowatt hour for Plot B [11] - that is almost a factor of 9 compared to the PV stations tendered in 2019 at the same spot (see above). Similarly, the project on Plot A at NIS 0.76 per kWh, but including 4.5 hours of molten salt storage,[12] delivers four times more expensive power than the results of tenders for solar plus 4 hours of storage awarded at the beginning of 2021 at NIS0.17/kWh ($0.054) to be delivered by 2023.[13]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    BrightSource and Alstom win tender for 121 Megawatt solar thermal power plant in Israel
  2. [2]
    "Emissions free and pollution free: Israel unveils massive solar power plant". Ynetnews. 2019-10-19. Retrieved 2019-11-19.
  3. [3]
    "Ashalim Solar Thermal Power Station inaugurated in Israel". Retrieved 2019-12-31.
  4. [4]
    "Negev Energy – Negev Energy English site". Archived from the original on 2021-02-22.
  5. [5]
    Bright Source Energy - Ashalim
  6. [6]
    "Ashalim Power Station, Israel" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-07-30. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
  7. [7]
    Scharf, Isaac (January 5, 2017). "Israel harnessing sunshine with world's tallest solar tower". The Times of Israel. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  8. [8]
    "World's Tallest Concentrated Solar Power Tower installed". 13 June 2020.
  9. [9]
    "BELECTRIC opens new PV plant in the Israeli desert ahead of schedule". 30 January 2018. Archived from the original on 2021-02-22.
  10. [10]
    "EDF Renewables wins tender to build solar plant, sets new low in prices". The Times of Israel. Archived from the original on 2021-02-22.
  11. [11]
    "BrightSource and Alstom win tender for 121 Megawatt solar thermal power plant in Israel".
  12. [12]
    "Noy Fund & TSK Group to Replace Abengoa in Shikun & Binui's Ashalim Thermo-Solar Power Plant Project" (Press release).
  13. [13]
    "החלטה מס' (59601) - תוצאות הליך תחרותי מס' 2 לקביעת תעריף לייצור חשמל בטכנולוגיה פוטו-וולטאית בשילוב קיבולת אגירה, למתקנים המחוברים לרשת החלוקה | מספר החלטה 59601".
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