The Solar Power Tower is Up!
The anticipated Solar Power Tower north of Los Angeles is now up and running as of August 5, 2009!
The project was managed by eSolar and took place in the Antelope Valley region, which is just north of Los Angeles on the edge of the Mojave Desert. The system has 24,000 silver mirrors that concentrate sunlight (and a lot of heat) onto two 150-foot-tall towers, producing steam. The steam of course is used to turn a turbine and produce electricity. The “mini-plant” can produce a total of five megawatts of power…enough electricity for around 4,000 residential homes.
This first project offers a blueprint for larger plants in the development in both California and New Mexico. Fourteen towers in total are expected to be added to create a 46-megawatt plant (we’re talking around 200,000 mirrors!) capable of generating almost 90 gigawatt-hours of electricity over one year…mmm, that’s a lot of electricity.
For a complete list of large US solar projects, check here…
