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Nevada Solar One Switched On

Nevada Solar One has gone online and is now providing solar power electricity to 15,000 US homes


Nevada Solar One

The 64MW Nevada Solar One (1) concentrated solar power plant (CSP) has gone online in the USA (June 2007). With 400 acres of solar concentrators (2), Nevada Solar One has become the third biggest solar thermal power plant in the world.

Nevada Solar One - Concentrated Solar Power Plant

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.

Solar Collector at Nevada Solar One

Concentrated Solar Power

Recently a commercial Solar Power Tower (3) (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 (4).

Film About Nevada Solar One

Click here to view a short film about Nevada Solar one (5) on YouTube.

Make a Concentrated Solar Water Heater


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 (6) which can be used to heat water for use in the home.

Web Link References

(1) http://www.reuk.co.uk/Nevada-Solar-One.htm
(2) http://www.reuk.co.uk/Concentrated-Solar-Power.htm
(3) http://www.reuk.co.uk/First-European-Solar-Power-Tower.htm
(4) http://www.reuk.co.uk/carbon.htm
(5) http://www.youtube.com/v/cgCJB9mu5CI
(6) http://www.reuk.co.uk/Build-a-Concentrated-Solar-Water-Heater.htm

Article from REUK.co.uk:
http://www.reuk.co.uk/Nevada-Solar-One-Switched-On.htm
Published: 24th September 2014
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