The world’s largest solar energy plant is going on line this summer in the Mojave Desert in California. The Ivanpah plant is a 377-megawatt power station that doesn’t use photovoltaic technology. Instead, it is a solar thermal energy plant that uses sunlight to heat water in boilers to make steam, which then turns turbines to generate electricity.
It has taken 6 years to build the plant, which uses more than 170,000 mirrors to focus sunlight onto three boilers that sit on top of towers standing nearly 500 feet above the desert floor. The enormous facility – which occupies 3,500 acres of federal land – will generate enough electricity to power more than 140,000 homes. It is twice as large as any previous solar thermal energy plant.
The Ivanpah plant is one of many large projects that are part of California’s very ambitious energy program aimed at producing at least one third of the state’s enormous electricity needs with renewable sources by the year 2020.
The southwestern deserts are home for multiple solar energy projects. In fact, the Ivanpah plant is not expected to hold the record for a solar energy plant for long.
The Agua Caliente Solar Project in Yuma County, Arizona is a huge photovoltaic project that went online in 2011 with 30 megawatts of capacity and has been expanding ever since. It reached 250 megawatts last year and is expected to reach 397 megawatts some time in 2014.
The desert sun, through photovoltaics and thermal solar technology, is driving a boom in solar energy.
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Web Links
Mojave Mirrors: World’s Largest Solar Plant Ready to Shine
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2013/07/130725-ivanpah-solar-energy-mojave-desert/
Photo, taken on January 10, 2012, courtesy of Masdar Official via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Support for Earth Wise comes from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY.