ElectraTherm, Inc. announced the installation of two ElectraTherm Green Machines to create electrical power from solar thermal heat at the “Holaniku at Keahole Point” Solar Farm on Hawaii’s Big Island. Keahole Solar Power, LLC (KSP) purchased the ElectraTherm Green Machines which are used in a co-generation process to create additional power at the solar farm and increase system efficiencies.
The Holaniku Solar Farm was unveiled at a ribbon cutting event on December 10th, 2009 and is the first in the world to utilize Sopogy’s (www.sopogy.com) Micro-scale Concentrating Solar Power Concentrators or “MicroCSP” for power generation. This is also the first commercial solar thermal application of ElectraTherm’s organic Rankine cycle (ORC) technology.
KSP learned of ElectraTherm’s technology while working to create a modular solar thermal template for mass adoption around world. Existing processes at Holaniku use 3.8 acres of solar collectors that feed two 4,000 gallon tanks. These tanks supply the ElectraTherm Green Machines with hot water through an array of insulated pipes, valves, sensors and pumps. The ElectraTherm Green Machines turn the heat into electrical power.
ElectraTherm’s heat-to-power technology can convert many sources of low temperature liquid heat (process heat, geothermal, solar thermal, jacket water, etc.) into power. A forklift can place the skid mounted 5’x5’ 50kW ElectraTherm Green Machine, making it a modular, scalable power plant. Containing only three components with moving parts, the machine operates at higher reliability and with a faster ROI then conventional turbine driven variations, Electratherm says.
In August, SB.com news editor Bart King interviewed ElectraTherm Senior Vice President and co-founder William Olson on Green Week in Review.
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