Southwest Research Institute engineer Jeff Moore, who led the project team, shows a prototype of the Supercritical Transformational Electrical Power Demo plant turbine Thursday.For 125 years, steam has been the thermal medium of choice to drive the turbines that generate electric power.
Known as the Supercritical Transformational Electric Power Demo, the pilot 10-megawatt plant is now ready to start testing to prove that carbon dioxide, when heated and pressurized to a certain point, is more efficient than steam to turn heat into energy. On Thursday, officials with the industry and government consortium that have been working on STEP Demo since 2015 came together inside a nondescript 22,000-square-foot warehouse that holds the plant to celebrate its completion.
At SwRI’s demonstration facility, researchers will work to advance the technology for commercial adoption, refining the sCOThe power generated by the plant will flow to CPS Energy, which will credit SwRI for what could be as much as a third of the research facility’s own power use. The technology is also fuel agnostic, meaning beyond its use to make fossil fuel-burning power plants cleaner and more efficient, it can increase the efficiency and reduce the footprint of power generated from nuclear andSTEP Demo is funded by a $124.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, which aims to advance technologies that will bolster the nation’s domestic energy foundation.