THE POWER OF THE SUN

The benefits of solar power are compelling – the heat fuel is free, abundant and inexhaustible. In fact, in just one year, six times as much useable solar energy hits the Earth as there is in total reserves from non-renewable sources! That is to say that the amount of sunlight reaching the earth in just 70 minutes is equivalent to the annual global energy consumption. It is environmentally friendly, aids in the diversification of our fuel and energy supply, is rapidly deployable, and is virtually unlimited.

Solar thermal is now being widely commercialized, with about 1.17 gigawatts (GW) of concentrated solar plants (CSP) online as of 2011. 582 megawatts are located in Spain, and the United States has 507 megawatts of capacity. A general rule of thumb to understand the magnitude of a megawatt is to consider that 1.0 MW powers about 1,000 American homes or more. This means solar thermal plants are powering about 507,000 American homes and 582,000 homes in Spain. About 17.54 GW (or enough power for 17.5 million American homes) of CSP projects are under development worldwide, with the United States leading (~ 8.67 GW, Spain ranking second (~ 4.46 GW), and China third (~ 2.5 GW).

How Heat Becomes Power

Rankine and Organic Rankine Cycles

The traditional approach to generate electricity from heat is to use steam turbines (the steam rankine cycle). Although effective, steam turbines require high quality heat; high temperatures and often need regular operators at the plant site. Technology currently developed that has been deployed in the geothermal industry for over 100 years based on the organic rankine cycle is also capable of generating electricity from solar heat, at lower temperatures, with no regular manned operation required. The organic rankine cycle differs from the steam rankine cycle because it uses an organic carbon based working fluid. Whereas the steam rankine cycle’s working fluid is water, the organic rankine cycle’s fluid is often a refrigerant with a lower boiling point temperature capable of capturing lower temperature heat.

Innovating Advanced Solutions

Power Generation, Meet Refrigeration

Interestingly, the organic rankine cycle as overviewed above shares similarities with the refrigeration cycle, in fact the cycle is nearly the same, only running in reverse. This is important because TAS Energy is the recognized global leader in highly efficient refrigeration and cooling solutions for power generation, data centers and commercial comfort cooling. With TAS Energy’s market leading and patented designs, and experience around the world, TAS Energy engineers were a natural fit for taking on the challenge of designing the market’s most advanced, heat to power organic rankine cycle unit optimized for efficiency and lifecycle cost.

TAS Energy’s Solar-to-Power (S2P) unit is an advanced and innovative approach to the organic rankine cycle, capable of capturing and efficiently generating emission free electricity from the sun. In fact, TAS Energy’s S2P unit can capture heat at solar thermal temperatures very efficiently; with conversion efficiencies of 20% or higher, and was recognized by the Department of Energy for its innovative and advanced design.

Emission free electricity is generated by TAS Energy’s S2P unit by first capturing the sun’s rays through concentrated solar power collectors to heat thermal oil. When the oil is hot enough it goes through a process of vaporization and expansion. In the expansion stage the gas turns a generator, eventually generating electricity. The vaporized gas is then sent back through the process to be condensed into a liquid, again to continue the cycle. Community-sized or on-site power plants (1MW to 50MW) are the best application for the TAS Energy S2P units.

They Operate. We Optimize.

System Optimization = Lowest Life-cycle Cost

The solar thermal technology manufacturers market is still small in the United States with few competitors offering megawatt sized modular organic rankine cycle units, none of which can compete against TAS Energy’s experience through an unparalleled knowledge of the power generation, refrigeration and packaging industries; all of which merge to form the most optimized, highly efficient, lowest life-cycle cost, guaranteed performing units in the market.

At TAS Energy we focus on product optimization, and have spent thousands of engineering hours testing the best combination of all components on the market to design our S2P unit that doesn’t simply operate, but is optimized for ultra-efficient performance; this includes our design of highly efficient controls that continually optimize the unit’s performance in real time. While our competitors design their unit to function without interruption, we’ve invested a significant amount of time to make sure we deliver the most value for the least life-cycle cost, saving our customers money, and our country valuable energy resources.

Turnkey, Tested & Ready to Go

TAS Energy’s optimized S2P designs are made even better through applying our expertise in modular packaging by standardizing our products for easy rapid deployment, and repeatable and scalable application to the business. Our designs allow for flexibility according to unique customer requirements, while ensuring we don’t reinvent an already perfect wheel.

In addition to guaranteeing product performance, the packaging and standardization of our designs allows us to manufacture, assemble and pretest them at our environmentally controlled 250,000 sq foot headquarters in Houston, Texas. After a thorough testing regimen, our S2P unit is disassembled into easily reassembled ‘blocks’ and transported by truck, train or ship anywhere in the world for rapid deployment for maximum early revenue or energy savings.

The TAS Energy optimized design and packaged standard approach of modular manufacturing eliminates a number of key risks faced by the traditional approach of buying and shipping thousands of parts to the site and having it field erected by the lowest bidder. These risks include inclement weather risks and delays, component shipments, unreliable and inexperienced labor, and risk of actual performance. By designing TAS Energy S2P units as modular, turnkey solutions, manufacturing them in a ISO Certified quality controlled environment, TAS Energy systems are guaranteed to be delivered on time, on budget and ready to begin work – immediately, with guaranteed performance.