Pratt & Whitney Discovers Promise in Solar Industry

Pratt &Whitney Rocketdyne is using rocket science to launch a new alternative energy technology into the U.S. solar industry. Pratt & Whitney, a company of United Technologies Corp., announced early this month that it received a contract to provide solar energy components and control technology to SolarReserve, a Santa Monica company that is constructing a 110-megawatt solar project in the Nevada desert. The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, to be built near Tonopah, Nevada, will use molten salt thermal energy storage technology to provide electricity to about 75,000 homes during peak hours. Pratt & Whitney’s move comes in response to the dwindling amount of rocket engine work. It marks the first time the company has stepped outside of its core business in an attempt to diversify its operations. And while Pratt &Whitney and SolarReserve officials say they have a leg up on competitors, there are many companies trying to snatch up opportunities in the molten salt thermal niche of the solar market, including eSolar, based in Burbank. Pratt & Whitney’s leap from building rocket engines to harnessing alternative power is not as big of a leap as it might seem, as both are about energy conversion, said Neeta Patel, the company’s director of future programs. “This leverages capabilities in house and creates a solution for the energy industry to make that transition (to renewables),” Patel said. SolarReserve, a utility-scale solar power project development company, has closed financing for its project, which includes a $737-million Department of Energy loan guarantee announced on Sept. 28. SolarReserve holds the exclusive worldwide license to the molten salt power tower technology developed by Pratt & Whitney. The company has projects built or slated for other parts of the U.S., Europe, Australia, South Africa and Latin America. Brian Langenberg, a Chicago-based analyst who follows Pratt & Whitney’s parent, United Technologies, said the company’s decision to enter the solar market likely won’t contribute to United’s bottom line. Alternative energy is not a core part of United’s business model. United Technologies is a conglomerate serving the aerospace and commercial building industries. Still, Pratt & Whitney likely made a wise move to diversify its operations, he said. “For any business, if you have a skill set and abilities and can divest your customer base without diluting what you do as your core business, that makes good sense,” Langenberg said. The Crescent Dunes project Pratt & Whitney developed the components associated with the molten salt thermal energy system as part of the molten salt power tower technology. That technology uses software to control 17,000 articulating mirrors, or heliostats, to track the sun and reflect solar energy onto a receiver mounted atop a 653-foot tower. Molten salt is circulated through the receiver, where it is heated to more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, then stored in a large insulated tank. The energy from this stored molten salt is available to drive a steam turbine to create electricity. Because hot molten salt can be stored for days with little heat loss, it can be used at night or on cloudy days to generate electricity, the company said. Three components — the control software, receiver and molten salt — are the core of the system and complicated technology requiring an experienced team, said Kevin Smith, chief executive officer of SolarReserve. While other solar companies now are recognizing the importance of storing energy using molten salt, none are as far along in the process as Pratt & Whitney, Smith said. “This leapfrogs them ahead of the pack,” Smith said. Entering this market is eSolar, which received an $11-million Department of Energy grant in 2010 to develop a molten salt power plant system. The company is currently in the preliminary design phase for the components of its system, said President and CEO John Van Scoter. While not as far along in development, eSolar does have the benefit of having former Rocketdyne employees on its payroll that bring expertise in molten salt technology. “We’ve got experience in the form of personnel that is deep and can leverage all the work we’ve done in heliostats and plant design into the molten salt system,” Van Scoter said. From Van Scoter’s perspective, Pratt & Whitney and SolarReserve are not the competition. He worries more about solar projects using photovoltaic panels that cost less than the thermal solar methods of eSolar, Van Scoter said. “I hope they are wildly successful,” Van Scoter added. “Together we need to compete against (photovoltaics).” Pratt & Whitney’s expertise Construction already has started on the Crescent Dune project with the completion expected in about 28 months, Smith said. The 650-foot tower, capped with the Pratt & Whitney receiver, will be up this winter. The receiver, which weighs 1 million lbs., was designed and engineered in Canoga Park and will be manufactured in St. Louis, said Randy Parsley, Pratt & Whitney’s program manager for renewable and alternative energy. The receiver can absorb heat equal to 1,000 suns. “In rocket engines you have to balance between the high temperatures and high energy and cooling systems,” Parsley said. “That balance is the expertise we bring into the energy business. If it is a mundane energy task, that is not our strong suit.” While the Crescent Dunes project is the first commercial use of Pratt & Whitney’s solar components, tests of the technology began more than 20 years ago. Rocketdyne, then part of Rockwell International, took part in an U.S. Energy Department pilot project in Barstow on a 10 megawatt solar thermal plant in the 1980s. During changes in ownership, first by Boeing Co., then by United Technologies, Rocketdyne continued its energy research. As part of Pratt & Whitney, that research expanded into other areas, including converting coal into a renewable synthesis gas through gasification. In 2009, Pratt & Whitney along with ExxonMobil and three other organizations opened a compact gasifier plant at the Gas Technology Institute in suburban Chicago. The gasification process converts coal into a voluble material. It also uses less water, which is important when seeking to provide energy sources for areas facing water shortages, Patel said. “Pratt & Whitney’s contribution in all this is improving performance,” Patel said. “Reducing the size of the gasifiers reduces the cost to build by up to 20 percent.” Performance tests at the gasifier were completed in June. The next step is to get a demonstration plant project running in either Asia or North America.