astronomy

Xina Solar One Power Station

Xina Solar One Power Station is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Xina Solar One Power Station rather than just read about it. In short: The Xina Solar One Power Station is a 100 MW (130,000 hp) concentrated solar power plant in South Africa. Constructed between 2014 and 2016, the power station was commercially commissioned in 2017.

Key takeaways

Xina Solar One Power Station belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Xina Solar One Power Station to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Xina Solar One Power Station from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Xina Solar One Power Station is a 100 MW (130,000 hp) concentrated solar power plant in South Africa. Constructed between 2014 and 2016, the power station was commercially commissioned in 2017. The solar component of this power station is complemented by molten salt thermal storage technology, which allows the power station to provide full power for another 5.5 hours, after the sun goes down, thus supplying energy during South African peak hours. The consortium that owns the solar farm comprises a foreign independent power producer (IPP), two domestic finance development companies and a local charity. The energy generated here is sold directly to Eskom, the South African national electricity utility company, under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA).

Location The power station is located near Pofadder, a small town in Khâi-Ma Municipality, in Namakwa District, in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, close to the international border with Namibia. Pofadder is located approximately 173 kilometres (107 mi) by road north-east of Springbok, the district capital of Namakwa District. This is about 627 kilometres (390 mi) by road, west of the city of Kimberley, the capital of Northern Cape Province. The geographical coordinates of Xina Solar One Power Station are:28°53'21.0"S, 19°35'23.0"E (Latitude:-28.889167; Longitude:19.589722).

Overview The power station has a 100 megawatt solar power capacity. Using parabolic mirrors, the station concentrates sunlight to produce heat. That heat is used to melt salts to store energy. When the sun sets, the solar component is extinguished. The molten salts are then processed through a heat exchanger to release heat and generate electricity, after sunset. Even when the sun is up, the solar energy is converted into heat by the parabolic mirrors. That heat is then used to heat water to produce steam. It is the steam that drives the electricity generators, when the sun is up or down. The water used to run this power station is sourced from the Orange River. In order to produce 1 MWh of electricity, the power station uses 0.15 cubic meters (150 L) of water. The generated energy is transmitted via 220kiloVolt cables a distance of approximately 3 kilometres (2 mi) to an Eskom substation in the neighborhood called Paulputs, where the energy enters the national grid.

Developers The owners of the power station established a special purpose vehicle company (SPV) called XiNa Solar One Pty Limited to own, design, finance, develop, operate and maintain this power station. The ownership in the SPV at the time of commissioning is as illustrated in the table below.

In 2021 Abengoa Solar concluded the sale of its 40 percent shareholding in the Xina Solar One Power Station and concurrent 46 percent ownership in the Xina Operations & Maintenance Company (Pty) Limited. The buyer was Engie, the French multinational utility company.

Construction costs and commissioning The power station cost US$880 million to construct. Ground breaking occurred in 2014 and commercial commissioning took place in 2017.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Xina Solar One Power Station

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Xina Solar One Power Station claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Xina Solar One Power Station before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Xina Solar One Power Station ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Xina Solar One Power Station

In research: Xina Solar One Power Station appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Xina Solar One Power Station in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Xina Solar One Power Station is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2017 establishments in South Africa, 21st-century architecture in South Africa, Economy of the Northern Cape, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Xina Solar One Power Station outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Xina Solar One Power Station in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Xina Solar One Power Station means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Xina Solar One Power Station out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Xina Solar One Power Station in simple terms?

The Xina Solar One Power Station is a 100 MW (130,000 hp) concentrated solar power plant in South Africa. Constructed between 2014 and 2016, the power station was commercially commissioned in 2017.

Why does Xina Solar One Power Station matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Xina Solar One Power Station?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Xina Solar One Power Station.