US' largest solar photovoltaic system flipped on in Nevada

Sure, we've seen monolithic solar farms before, but the 14-megawatt Nellis solar energy system is a beast that stands alone -- for now, at least. As of today, this farm is hailed as America's "largest solar photovoltaic system," but if all goes to plan, Cleantech America will grab those honors when it completes a massive 80-megawatt project in neighboring California. Nevertheless, this system -- which is housed at the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada -- will reportedly generate "30 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity annually and supply approximately 25-percent of the total power used at the base, where 12,000 people live and work." Of course, some 140 acres of land have been covered with 72,000 solar panels in order to make it happen, but it's not like anything else is going out there (CES and rabid gambling notwithstanding).

[Via MetaEfficient, image courtesy of CleanTech]

[max andrews @ Dec 30th 2007 8:56AM]

It's too bad that solar farms are treated as a separate entity from buildings. Buildings have a ton of usable surfaces such as roofs and walls, where it's quite easy to install solar panels, and will only get easier, especially with low cost, lightweight thin film technologies like that of nanosolar. It will soon be quite easy and cheap to build houses that supply all of their own energy, no grid connection will be required.

[Flashpoint @ Dec 30th 2007 10:23AM]

"We are the ones who darkened the sky.
It was believed that if we did, we'd rob the machines of their energy source - the sun - but, it turns out, the machines already found all the energy they'd ever need.

The human body generates more bioelectric heat than a 120v battery..."

[mike @ Dec 30th 2007 12:13PM]

The article said, they need 140 acres of solars panels to help supply what number of people? ohh, its 25% of 12000, thats 3000 people. WHAT? I wonder how much money they are gonna spend on this damn thing. They should spend the money on doing research in order to make the 140 acres of solar panels serve at least 100 thousand people not only 3 thousand ... and I was thinking solar energy is a good alternative to oil..

[fischju @ Dec 30th 2007 12:13PM]

And insanely expensive. Have you seen the solar tower that the Brits are going to build in Africa? Might as well use all that desert for something.



Also, that picture is awesome. See the jet in the background?

[Dean W. Armstrong @ Dec 30th 2007 12:30PM]

This particular install was atop a landfill, so it's land that was otherwise unavailable for any other use.

[vypergts @ Dec 30th 2007 1:08PM]

Just to add some perspective, a newly built high-density data center can require a 50 megawatt load for just one building... Solar still has quite a ways to go if it wants to become the dominant means of power supply. Still, it's good to add green sources into the overall mix so that other sources don't have to supply as much.

[Spyvie @ Dec 30th 2007 3:17PM]

If there is such a thing as wasteland in the United States, it has to be in the Great Basin (middle of Nevada) The enormous skewed ratio of land used to power output make more sense here than in most places.

Nellis is one of the largest and busiest AFBs on the planet and aviation requires large buffer zones, what else are they gunna do with all that flat, dry sun soaked land?

[Neoprimal @ Dec 30th 2007 4:38PM]

I think one of the biggest issues is retrofitting the homes that are out there now. Had this tech been utilized back when cities infrastructures were being planned for it'd have worked out alot better, and noone can convince me that the tech wasn't around back then. There are many external factors to think about too - natural disasters and such would have to be considered...for instance, solar energy would probably not work out well for areas 'prone' to hurricanes or tornadoes. Hydro obviosuly couldn't work out for flat areas where there are no rushing rivers etc. Air wouldn't work out for heavily built up metro areas and states that are not very 'windy'. I believe in using renewable sources of energy...water, wind and sunlight, but I don't think it will happen until it's necessary because if 'they' wanted to, it would be right now en masse, there's just too much money to be made from oil for those out there 'holding the cards'.

[raven7587 @ Dec 30th 2007 7:56PM]

when they say 25% of a military base's energy, i think they mean more than just the people living there... Its 25% of the power in their homes, their offices, and all their military needs... I'm sure that the 140 acres could provide power for a much larger number of people in a suburban neighborhood...

[ripper @ Dec 31st 2007 5:19AM]

god damn, but that Matrix battery plot point is the stupidest thing ever. human bodies generate absolutely NO energy whatsoever, we BURN energy from food, ALL OF WHICH comes from the sun via photosynthesis.

Christ.

[tekdroid @ Dec 30th 2007 9:14AM]

nearly every US-based tech story is military-related. This is quite the solar farm, regardless.

Who has the world's largest?

[bigdoggie @ Dec 30th 2007 9:23AM]

Not sure, but I heard that portugal does.

[Rk @ Dec 30th 2007 9:42AM]

Is this really cost effective?

[Kaminix @ Dec 30th 2007 9:45AM]

My thought exactly. It's not that I don't like solar power, but this...

[locke6854 @ Dec 30th 2007 10:14AM]

well if you consider the prices that celebrities pay for "green cars", and in general the prices we pay to CREATE these energy saving devices, the goal isn't to lower our energy bills.. while thats a good side effect...

the goal, i would imagine, is for conservation and waste/pollution purposes. I'd hope.

[Yubastard @ Dec 30th 2007 10:30AM]

well, I bet it's more cost-effective than petroleum... that black thing is sure getting more expensive every day.

[Eliot @ Dec 30th 2007 10:08AM]

Not to be confused with the much much larger 64MW solar plant south of town http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_Solar_One

[Cellenin @ Dec 30th 2007 10:08AM]

In a few the rabid enviromental nutcases will chime in with ignorance, irrational thought and excessive displays of emotional baggage! Not a bit holds an ounce of intellectual capital and reason. Folks Solar is good from the making us feel "chipper department", However, in the land of reality and substance it is not. Nuclear and Clean Coal for the future...bet on it!

[zabador @ Dec 30th 2007 10:51AM]

not that i donut believe thats whats going to end up happening in the end, but "clean" coal and nuclear arn't as clean as other alternatives. Clean coal simply transforms one emission into another by reburning the smoke a chemically washed coal and turning it into carbon dioxide (still a green house gas). Nuclear uses chemicals to be heated by the rods to produce electricity, those chemicals themselves turn into nuclear waste which probably gets buried in a hole somewhere based on the information (or lack there of) of how these plants deal with that.

Solar farms and wind turbines are truly the best course for the future since they are zero emission and unless some religious cult puts us in 1000 years of darkness, no one will ever wonder where the next watt will come from.

That being said I'm on the fence about global warming, some evidence says it exists, some evidence says it doesn't, I'm not a scientist i don't know. I am however an asthmatic so i know all that shit we put in the air is doing something bad so its gotta stop

Solar and Wind turbines FTW!

[Xee @ Dec 30th 2007 11:44AM]

Too bad we can't have solar or wind-powered passenger airplanes.

[Rob @ Dec 30th 2007 12:18PM]

Here's one (of several) problems with nuclear. No matter how well designed they are, it's people who maintain them. A friend of mine worked full time as a nuke inspector, saw how people were open to using substandard replacement parts because they got kickbacks for using these parts. He witnessed that near catastrophic accidents that never got reported (fooling people to think the plant was much safer than it is). He saw how the spent rods had to be packed more and more tightly in the cooling pool than was ever intended (since there was no place to properly dispose of them), and knew that if anything stopped the cooling process, there would be a major incident. Folks, an accident at a nuke is not pretty, and just as sure as some people are that nukes are our future, I am sure a nuclear plant will cause a major catastrophe. Maybe it's worth a major accident once in awhile, with limited options? Meanwhile, I'm trying my best with conservation and a roof filled with PV panels.

[jamesFF @ Dec 31st 2007 4:06AM]

The CO2 that clean coal power plants produce can be self contain and can be used to produce ethanol, or it can be pumped into our depleated oil wells to acess what we have left of our supply.

[Peter @ Dec 30th 2007 10:08AM]

The oil industry doesn't have any choice. At some point in the future (maybe not the near future) our supplies of oil will run out, or be so expensive to obtain that solar power will be a very viable and cost effective option.

[max andrews @ Dec 31st 2007 2:42AM]

We're out in 40 years, using world oil reserve numbers from oil company annual reports divided by current world oil consumption.

[rento @ Dec 30th 2007 10:24AM]

Forget solar panel while they get better just use wind farms.

[manoffoo978 @ Dec 30th 2007 10:29AM]

Hey do you suppose if they aren't already, would there would be anyway of making these panels double sided? I mean if you look at the pictures you can see that when the sunlight hits one it stands to reason that a large amount of light must be reflected on to the back of the one in front of it. Just wondering, because they could greatly increase there density if it were possible.

[Cheeze @ Dec 30th 2007 11:47AM]

double-sided, double-density...


might as well double space them also and then over-format them! don't forget to put tape over the hole to double the capacity.

[Eli @ Dec 30th 2007 11:50AM]

The panels actually re-orient themselves to the sun, slowly turning throughout the day.

[Yubastard @ Dec 30th 2007 1:18PM]

really interesting point of view... I would guess that solar panels are way too expensive to put one where there'll be little light (assuming light reflected isn't really that much to justify the price)

[Bobs @ Dec 30th 2007 7:22PM]

Look up heliostat, it uses motors to align the panels so they are for the most part, facing the sun directly at all times, or for the most part, as most heliostats dont spin, but they only tilt the panel up or down, mostly.

[Jason Schleifer @ Dec 30th 2007 10:36AM]

Sunny

[brainfire @ Dec 30th 2007 10:53AM]

ok

[Jared @ Dec 30th 2007 11:23AM]

I get it. It's OK to trample on, disturb and ruin natural spaces as long as its for solar power, because after all, "it's not like anything else is going out there." But it's not OK to look explore for oil within our own borders out in the boonies of Alaska because... um... Oh, I give up trying to understand enviro-whackos lack of logic.

[CharlieX @ Dec 30th 2007 11:49AM]

Right wing wackos like you cause the planet to die. Have you ever BEEN to Nevada or Alaska? Do you even understand what the difference is between oil drilling and solar harvesting?

[kev @ Dec 30th 2007 11:59AM]

And it's okay to keep using oil?

See the problem is consumption--the heart of capitalism. Of course we can't completely destroy it, and who would want to? Our lifestyles are great. But you've got to see, that we can't keep going on like this. Or we can, and we'll all run out of energy some day. The Earth does not have infinite resources of oil, nor any resource for that matter.

[kev @ Dec 30th 2007 12:01PM]

By the way--someone should be helping out the people and companies in Nigeria in making better use of their oil drills because they keep having to use flares to burn off the excess they keep getting, and it's a waste and a hazard to the people around them.

[Akhan Almagambetov @ Dec 30th 2007 3:32PM]

The excess that is being burned off is natural gas, which is more expensive to transport than to use at the end location. I agree, this is a waste.. especially since there exist extremely cheap methods of liquifying the gas and transporting it more efficiently.

If you are interested in the issue, this problem is rampant in the oil industry of Kazakhstan, where some of the largest oil reserves in the world have been found and capitalized on by companies, such as Chevron (the Tengiz-Chevron partnership) and Mobil (Exxon Mobil Kazakhstan).

In fact, Russia's GazProm has taken a great political (as well as an environmental) stance and is currently in the process of booting all foreign oil/gas firms from their gas fields (BP has already been given an official 'let go' and, as someone already mentioned, this bold move on Russia's behalf has some people reaching for the Vodka [source: Forbes Magazine]). Companies, whose interests lie outside of Russia's political/environmental concerns (such as safe drilling and gas export to neighboring countries) are likely to get the boot in the near future.

[larry Friedman @ Dec 30th 2007 12:02PM]

>> double-sided, double-density...

might as well double space them also and then over-format them! don't forget to put tape over the hole to double the capacity.

That made my day

[KC @ Dec 30th 2007 1:21PM]

Geeze, this is paid for by our tax money. When will they use our tax money to build a solar farm for us, instead of military/govt use?

[coloniekarma @ Dec 30th 2007 1:50PM]

One word: NANOSOLAR

[Jherez @ Dec 30th 2007 3:13PM]

Well the last time i checked we've got around 34 years before the worlds oil runs out...the next 3 decades should be interesting? World War 3 anyone?

[Russell Barton @ Dec 30th 2007 4:18PM]

Mike said "The article said, they need 140 acres of solars panels to help supply what number of people? ohh, its 25% of 12000, thats 3000 people. WHAT? I wonder how much money they are gonna spend on this damn thing. They should spend the money on doing research in order to make the 140 acres of solar panels serve at least 100 thousand people not only 3 thousand ... and I was thinking solar energy is a good alternative to oil."

I suspect you are overestimating how big 140 acres is. Its not uncommon in the US for homes (which average 2.6 people each) in exurbs to be mandated to be built at no more than 3 units per acre which means 3000 people would take up 385 acres. If there was no overlap between homes and solar panels at all, housing the 3000 people plus the panels to power them in the same 385 acres would require an increase to 4.7 units per acre which would still be considered rural in most parts of the world.

Homes in dense cities are another matter though they do use significantly less power.

[Adam Fox @ Dec 30th 2007 5:47PM]

I'm surprised no one mentioned Nellis Airforce Base is "Area 51"... Wonder why they need a solar farm THAT big. Woo Alien Space Craft!

[Dr Buzz0 @ Dec 30th 2007 11:00PM]

80 megawatts is actually pretty small as far as power plants go. Any idea what the cost of this thing is?

[steven @ Jan 27th 2008 3:00AM]

whats the cost to the enviroment if we dont ?

[steven @ Jan 26th 2008 6:57PM]

I drive to work and see all the roof space on all the houses that could be covered in photovoltic cells and a hot water panel, with this we wouldnt need these massive transmission lines running up the lenth of the country (new zealand), and if we all have meters that wind back and credit us and every house connected, the neighbours can draw off someone else if they need more power than they can generate or have stored ( some efficent battery system).
Im planning to put quite a number of pv panels on my house, with a bank of deep cycle batteries, hot water heater too, the batteries electricity will also get transfered into the battery bank in my electric car that im designing, its all going to be fun. with this global warming because of the suns energy being trapped in the carbon dioxide and retained on the planet, why not make an industry that produces pv solar panels and use the energy to make more panels, then they can be mass produced on a global scale, in the long run, the suns energy can be used up and cool the planet enough for it to survive, especially the planets ecology and animals.
This kyoto protocal we have ( govt )signed just lets the government add tax to what energy supplies we use, the government won't use the money to make machines to seperate the carbon from the oxygen to lower the ammount of co'2 on the planet and releasing the suns energy back into space , maybe they will plant a few more trees, but I know the money from the carbon tax will just get swollowed into their coffers, I hope i am wrong.
I can't wait to get my system up and running, its going to be great.

Steven.