The Worlds Largest Solar Plant Started Creating Energy Today

I did search and didn't see anything about this so if it is there Mods please close.


The plant is located on the California-Nevada border and takes up over 5 miles of land. The pics that accompany this article are just amazing to look at. In reading the details it doesn't operate as a traditional solar power plant would but rather uses solar power as part of the generation process. Going to continue reading to see what else I can learn.


Solar PLant

That is some impressive technology!!!!

A bright new future ahead

reply to post by opethPA


Well that is great news for areas that receive more than an average of 4-5 hours of sunlight per day. But I would hate to be the person or group of people who clean all those mirrors. If that kind of technology could be used across the nation, we could remove not only coal fired plants, but nuclear plants as well. Both of which have their downfalls and setbacks.

But for now, we have to burn coal to keep everyone in the light. Which is still cleaner now than it has ever been and is our largest provider of electricity to date. It will be an immensely difficult thing to replace. Maybe somewhere in the distant future, humans will decide that they don't collectively need all the electricity they are using, and boil things down to what they need vs. what they want. Let's face facts here...there are things we can all live without...but choose not to.

Pictures are very impressive.

Do TPTB know? If not, 404 this page, quickly; before the technology disappears. lol

WonderBoi
Do TPTB know?

If not, 404 this page, quickly; before the technology disappears. lol

How does this contribute to the thread?

Don't you have another ridiculous SuperBowl = Martial Law = IllumiNSAMasons = HAARP thread to go start?

Wow, its nice to see my hard work in an article. I was involved in the process of bending these peices of glass. Very tight tolerances. They have actually had this type of process since the 70's. There is a Solar plant at White Sands, NV it uses the same type of process, via heating the Solar concentrator, which heats liquid, creates steam, steam spins the generator fans, that create electricty.

reply to post by WonderBoi


Its not disappearing anywhere, Firstly bc its been around for so darn long, and second bc I still have my 3-d molds for making these panels of glass, LOL

So cool that
Glad I don't live near though cos the temptation to go near and bang a few golf balls at it all would be very tempting
Iam in a naughty mood today

It's unfortunate that this is a very situational and very strict setting technology. We'd never be able to use that here in Canada or in the northern states for that matter. Dust, snow, wind, etc.

I think Saudi Arabia has invested into mass solar panel technology tho. In the next 20 years they want to replace their oil dependency.

Kind of crazy how much room this solar plant takes just to feed power to 140.000 homes, but it's a step in the right direction.

I think i have seen one more like it but only in a movie, can't remember which.

And a steady job for the mirror polisher, i guess it loses some efficiency with dust setling on them.

I wish we would get on board with two technologies stat.


Solar power, and Solar Desalinization plants.

Two things, that while costly, would have a net benefit of solving the two "major" crisis we supposedly face.

Fresh Water.

and

Energy.

Very impressive power plant. I think this is a step in the right direction. My biggest concern with this is the seaguls that seem to target car windshields after you wash your car. It would be a full time job for many people to wash those mirrors.

Wouldn't high winds cause a lot of problems with this system? Are the mirrors all motorized to adjust their angle? What about the effect of the light on aircraft if some of the mirrors go off line?

I love the technology but I read another article on this today that makes me sad at the same time.

The $2.2 Billion Bird-Scorching Solar Project
At California's Ivanpah Plant, Mirrors Produce Heat and Electricity—And Kill Wildlife

A giant solar-power project officially opening this week in the California desert is the first of its kind, and may be among the last, in part because of growing evidence that the technology it uses is killing birds.

One reason: the BrightSource system appears to be scorching birds that fly through the intense heat surrounding the towers, which can reach 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

The company, which is based in Oakland, Calif., reported finding dozens of dead birds at the Ivanpah plant over the past several months, while workers were testing the plant before it started operating in December. Some of the dead birds appeared to have singed or burned feathers, according to federal biologists and documents filed with the state Energy Commission.

Source

This reminds me of the HELIOS One solar plant that generates and provides power to the New Vegas Strip in the game Fallout: New Vegas. Watch it, that thing vaporized everything in about a 10 mile radius when it was turned on

reply to post by opethPA


My wife and I were traveling from Denver to SD last fall, and we drove right past this amazing facility. I had no idea what is was at the time, but it was so bright it was breathtaking!

When I researched what it was and saw it was a solar power plant, I smiled.

It is something to behold in person for sure.

God Bless,

Drove past here just recently. Usually this area has low visibility because winds kick up dust and rain falls in kind of a moving sheet. This time the dust dervishes were in the distance and the facility was clearly visible. Weather in the surrounding area was...unusual. Sudden winds whirling with dust. The buildings adjacent to the towers also sit up off the ground and look more like high tech bunkers than anything else.

Back home I fished out an iron worker who had been involved in some of the construction project - cinching nuts that weighed 140 lbs. He also said it was some kind of a solar energy plant.

I wonder why Google would be involved in it.

Traffic right in there is extremely monitored. Poles with cameras spaced along the highway and a number of signs advising drivers that they are entering a no tolerance zone and plenty of highway patrol presence. Lots of people with several changes of clothes fresh from the dry cleaner hanging on the hook in the backseat turning off to this facility.

Seems like a lot of hooplah to power 140,000 homes.

reply to post by opethPA


I believe there is one very similar operating in Spain.
Thye have had nothing but praise for it's performance for the time it has been running.

benrl
I wish we would get on board with two technologies stat.


Solar power, and Solar Desalinization plants.

Two things, that while costly, would have a net benefit of solving the two "major" crisis we supposedly face.

Fresh Water.

and

Energy.

I wrote about this a couple years back. If you put this plant in the ocean above a well which is empty (surrounded by the sea - and drilled underground from there inland to a desert) You could generate power desalinate water and deliver it energy free to anywhere at sea level.

Get the picture you condense the boiled sea water spin your turbines and drop the water into the well - which will eventually fill up with fresh water. You could make the top of the well some metres above the sea level. The well at the sea bottom goes along a pipe and is drilled into the land on shore and plugged into town supply.

Got the advantage of being able to grow crops on the land that you didn't use to build this. None the less I'm glad they are doing this - it is currently more efficient then solar panels.

Peter Brake

benrl
I wish we would get on board with two technologies stat.


Solar power, and Solar Desalinization plants.

Two things, that while costly, would have a net benefit of solving the two "major" crisis we supposedly face.

Fresh Water.

and

Energy.

I wrote about this a couple years back. If you put this plant in the ocean above a well which is empty (surrounded by the sea - and drilled underground from there inland to a desert) You could generate power desalinate water and deliver it energy free to anywhere at sea level.

Get the picture you condense the boiled sea water spin your turbines and drop the water into the well - which will eventually fill up with fresh water. You could make the top of the well some metres above the sea level. The well at the sea bottom goes along a pipe and is drilled into the land on shore and plugged into town supply.

Got the advantage of being able to grow crops on the land that you didn't use to build this. None the less I'm glad they are doing this - it is currently more efficient then solar panels.

ITs a fairly simple concept to make a gravity fed desalination plant.

It sounds easier than it is, as there are added problems.

Desalinized waste is extremely corrosive and toxic, the cost comes in handling whats left of the process, as well as the prohibitive maintenance cost that are involved when salt water meets metal.

Workable designs and plants are in production, its not that we don't know how, its that the will power to do it just is not there.

Impressive!

Being simple mirrors rather than s/panels it should last for many many years. I've seen this done on a very small scale using one mirror to boil water in a pan!

How long will it be before the control computers are hacked and it gets used to take down a satelite?