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World's largest solar power plant experiences minor meltdown
A small fire temporarily shut down the generator at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System near the California-Nevada border Thursday. According to the Associated Press, some wires at the power plant melted and caught fire after a misaligned mirror zapped them with concentrated sunbeams.
The world's largest solar thermal power plant is incinerating thousands of local birds
A common sight in the sky above the world's largest solar thermal power plant is a "streamer," a small plume of smoke that occurs without warning. Closer inspection, however, reveals that the source of the smoke is a bird that has inadvertently strayed into the white-hot heat above the plant's many reflecting mirrors. Because the BrightSource Energy plant near Ivanpah, California, uses supercritical steam rather than photovoltaic energy, the sun's heat is reflected off more than 300,000 mirrors to a single point, which is used to drive a steam turbine. The downside of that, of course, is that it's lethal for any wildlife that strays into the picture -- a problem that was recognized well before the facility opened, but now the government has gotten involved.
Biggest-ever solar thermal power plant goes online in California
Solar power just hit the big time in the US -- BrightSource Energy has confirmed that the world's largest solar thermal plant, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in California, is up and running. The array, also backed by Google and NRG Energy, produces a total 392MW of power through 173,500 multi-mirror units. That's enough to power 140,000 nearby homes, and it represents 30 percent of all the solar thermal energy in the US. The Ivanpah harvester has its drawbacks; with roughly 5.5 square miles of mirrors, it's creating trouble for birds and other nearby wildlife. Even so, it represents an important breakthrough for delivering clean energy on a grand scale.
