California To Receive Nation’s First Solar Towers Of Power245 megawatts beats out the Eye of Sauron |
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| By Michael d'Estries in Energy, Solar | June 3, 2008 | |
Southern California Edison announced today the signing of a contract with eSolar to add another 245 MW of solar power for its customers. The partnership would take advantage of power tower solar thermal technology – the first commercialized venture of its kind in the nation. From the release,
Each pre-fabricated module consists of several solar towers each associated with thousands of heliostats, or mirrors. The mirrors precisely track the sun over the course of the day and reflect light to a receiver at the top of each tower. The concentrated light boils water in a central receiver, routing the steam to a traditional turbine to produce electricity. eSolar’s solar thermal technology is unique in that it uses shorter towers, small mass-manufactured mirrors and advanced tracking software, achieving economies of scale within a minimal footprint and easy connection to transmission lines.
The project should be fully operational by 2011 — with about 105 MW of solar being delivered within a year after that. By 2013, that number is expected to reach closer to 245 MW. According to the specs on eSolar’s site, the entire footprint will be about 1,000 acres. One 33MW plant takes up 160 acres.For more, check out eSolar’s tech page on the towers.
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Ballerinagrl said,
This article breaks down a lot of the trends in solar power- How things are getting bigger and better. If solar power is ever going to start generating massive amounts of energy, we need economies of scale to really kick in. And just a couple years ago, the United States seemed very far off from building a massive solar power plant the size of which is contemplated in this article. Back then it seemed only Germany or Japan was capable of such an endeavor, so this is incredibly promising. Still I’m also really interested in the micro-level, and I do wonder if these giant plants such as the one contemplated in this article are themselves harmful to the environment. I would imagine 90 huge solar towers will at least screw up a lot of birds.
I’m considering buying a house in Oxnard, CA that utilized solar power as an incentive that was based on the real estate model described by Adam Edward Rothwell, a real estate professional and attorney at http://www.solarpowerandrealestate.com
I think down the road solar power will become a fundamental part of more real estate transactions, which is obviously very different from the massive solar energy plants of the style contemplated in this article. Clearly though there are tremendous opportunities for solar energy across the board.