Chilean coal plant includes solar power

Mejillones CSP Solar Boiler integrates concentrated solar power with a coal plant in Chile, supplying solar-heated steam, enabling thermal storage after sunset. Developed by GDF Suez and Solar Power Group, it lowers emissions.

A concentrated solar power facility in Chile will help reduce emissions at a coal-fired power plant, German and French energy companies announced.

GDF Suez announced it had teamed with German renewable energy company Solar Power Group to develop a 5-megawatt thermal solar concentrated solar power plant. The facility will provide stream to the 150 MW Mejillones coal plant in northern Chile.

The solar augmentation facility will heat water for steam production, giving the coal plant the ability to "store" thermal energy by using steam to drive turbines for electricity after sunset.

The so-called solar boiler will connect directly to the coal-fired power plant, a form of retrofitting with solar technology that reduces coal consumption and decreases the amount of harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

"The inclusion of our solar boilers in the Mejillones plant is an important milestone on a path toward affordable clean energy production," said Jacques de Lalaing, founding and managing director of Solar Power Group, in a statement.

GDF Suez points to estimates from the International Energy Agency that suggest more than 10 percent of global electricity production will come from concentrated solar power by 2050, with early hybrid solar-coal projects underscoring the trend today.

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