World's largest thermal solar power plant

I drove by there with the Model S on the way to Vegas, November 2014. It was operational since September.

Amazing to see right off the highway just before PRIM

No cooling tower, no smoke stack, no tail pipe just like the TESLA.:smile:

That is very impressive. Now what can we come up with for the rest of the country? Weather / Land for that installation is great for deserts, so CA, AZ, NM etc. we still need a breakthrough in fusion, for other areas.

Btw, take the tour and watch the videos: BrightSource Ivanpah | Proven Leadership in Solar Energy

Zapped said:

I drove by there with the Model S on the way to Vegas, November 2014. It was operational since September.

Amazing to see right off the highway just before PRIM

No cooling tower, no smoke stack, no tail pipe just like the TESLA.:smile:

Click to expand...

Thermal solar, as all thermal power plants, requires cooling of the "work medium" after it passes thru the steam turbines. The ABENGOA plant in Spain uses evaporating cooling towers. How does the Ivanpah plant work? From the pictures I think there is some cooling installed atop of the power house.
Using water evaporators as cooling is a significant water usage, which can be a problem in dry areas.

Edit: found it in English wikipedia article:

In order to conserve scarce desert water, LPT 550 uses air-cooling to convert the steam back into water. Compared to conventional wet-cooling, this results in a 90 percent reduction in water usage. The water is then returned to the boiler in a closed process

Click to expand...

I saw these plants from 35,000' last month en route to SoCal from Denver. We passed to the south at midday and it looked like miniature suns shining on the desert floor.

I did an Angel Flight today and got a couple of OK pictures of the Inyokern plant(s). Note the high cloud... it didn't even count as a very sunny day! I'm guessing I was about 30 miles away at the time(s).