Nevada Solar One Switched On
Nevada Solar One Switched On
Nevada Solar One has gone online and is now providing solar power electricity to 15,000 US homes
solar | news
The 64MW
Nevada Solar One concentrated solar power plant (CSP) has gone online in the USA (June 2007). With 400 acres of
solar concentrators,
Nevada Solar One has become the third biggest
solar thermal power plant in the world.
A total of 18,240
solar receivers have been installed each with a mirrored
parabolic trough which concentrates the sun's rays onto vacuum tubes holding a
heat transfer fluid. The hot fluid (heated by the sun up to 300 degrees Celcius) from all of the
solar collectors is pumped through a
heat exchanger generating steam which turns an electricity generating turbine.
Concentrated Solar Power
Recently a commercial
Solar Power Tower (PS10) went live which generates electricity using mirrors to focus the suns rays to the top of a tower where they heat water to generate steam to drive a turbine. Many other countries are looking at using
concentrated solar power to generate electricity.
The electricity generated is typically cheaper than that which can be obtained using
PV Solar Panels, and is therefore getting close to being competitive with that generated by oil and gas powered power stations but without the
carbon emissions.
Film About Nevada Solar One
Click here to view a short film about
Nevada Solar one on
YouTube.
Make a Concentrated Solar Water Heater
The technology used in
Nevada Solar One is very simple and can be replicated in DIY
solar water heaters. Click here to find out how to build your own
Concentrated Solar Water Heater which can be used to
heat water for use in the home.
Article Last Modified: 11:47, 11th Jun 2007Comment on this Article
If you have any comments on this article, please email them to
neil@reuk.co.uk.
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