Full steam ahead for Nevada solar project

[jpak]

http://news.com.com/Full+steam+ahead+for+Nevada+solar+project/2100-11392_3-6166113.html

BOULDER CITY, Nev.--The Nevada Solar One power plant is essentially a tea kettle, just one that happens to take up 300 acres and can provide enough power for 15,000 homes.

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Now, solar thermal projects are under way--or at least on the white board--in Spain, Greece, Mexico, Iran, Algeria and parts of the U.S., among other places. When it goes live, Solar One will be the third largest solar thermal plant in the world with a 64 megawatt capacity. Potentially, the site could crank out 2,000 megawatts, or enough power for about a half-million people, Cohen said. The U.S. Southwest could ultimately produce 4,000 to 40,000 megawatts of solar thermal power, he speculated, enough for 1 million to 10 million consumers.

In California's Mojave Desert, already home to 354 megawatts of solar thermal facilities, Stirling Energy Systems in conjunction with utility company Southern California Edison is erecting a 500 megawatt plant to open in 2009.

The driving force behind the demand for solar thermal power, besides global warming and fears about rising electrical prices, are state and federal laws aimed at curbing fossil fuels and coal. In Nevada, regulations require that utilities get 15 percent of their power from renewable resources and a total of 5 percent from solar power by 2015. Other southwestern states have passed similar laws.

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[XemaSab]

1. It's good times

Starting Monday I am going out to the desert to work on a transmission line that will connect clean, green energy to the LA Basin.

160 miles of good, hard, thinking time. :D