Besides being very pricey, solar power plants simply discourage by the fact that the sun is not always there when you need it: what happens if you need to switch on the light in your kitchen to drink water at 2 A.M. in the morning? Or on a cloudy day, for that matter?… Thanks to SolarReserve and the Obama administration funding it you may never have to go through that.
The substantial funding of $737 million will make sure SolarReserve is able to supply consumers with non-stop electricity, be it day or night, sunny or cloudy.
Well, i’s not called “Reserve” for nothing! The solar plant does use motorized mirrors to collect the sunlight, 17,550 of them; but then it temporarily deposits the heat in molten salt, a solution already used in Spain and Italy.
From the 640-feet tower, the heat is then conducted to the boiler, which in turn generates steam. Vapors reach a steam turbine and make it spin. This is how electricity is produced! How much? About 110 MW, which is pretty much enough by today’s standards.
[via CleanTechnica]
