The US government hold huge tracts of public country — more than a 654 million acres , in fact — for public use such as national parks as well as for military usance like test ranges and proving curtilage . But most of the time , much of that land is left to moulder when it could be producing unobjectionable solar energy for our ever - increase business leader needs .
To that final stage , President Obama signed the Solar Energy Zone go-ahead into law of nature last October in an attempt to convey much of this fallow state under a exclusive Union direction entity and streamline the approval outgrowth for convert unused government real demesne into public-service corporation - scale solar projection . Each Solar Zone is rate based on its solar voltage , environmental impact , and available transmission line . So far , 17 such SEZs have been establish throughout 285,000 land of the American West in Arizona , California , Colorado , Nevada , New Mexico and Utah . Granted that ’s out of a potentially useable 17 million Acre but hey , it ’s a start at least . And , if in full build out , these 17 areas will sire 31,658 MW of solar DOE — enough to power 7 million American homes .
California ’s largest SEZ , Riverside East , is spread over 147,910 Akko of Southern California and has the potential to generate up to16,434 MW alone . To do so , the BrightSource and Abengoa vim ship’s company have team up to develop and operate the 500 MW Palen Solar Electric Generating System , the world ’s tallest concentrate solar power system , on 3,800 of those acres .
Concentrating solar organisation work by reflecting and , well , concentrate , the Dominicus ’s rays using a serial of mirrors ( or heliostats ) onto a very small target area to heat a boiler , which bring on steam to labour an electrical energy - return turbine . What set the Palen project asunder from other solar concentrators is the height of each 250MW boiler — they’re each 750 metrical unit - tall . That ’s 240 feet taller than the current record holder , the 540 - foot concentrator at Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Power Plant . This is done to increase the denseness of heliostats beneath them while reducing the total step of the system by as much as 33 percent . What ’s more , each heliostat is mount on a perch rather than a concrete pad , which reduces upkeep costs , does n’t require the state be perfectly level before installation , and preserves more of the local flora . If that was n’t enough , the Palen system of rules will utilize dry - cooling technology , which save up to 50 - per centum of the piss expend by liquidity - cool down concentrators .
The necessary permits have already been filed for the project , twist is expect to begin by the goal of this year , and enough electricity to power 200,000 California home base should be flowing by 2016 .
[ Cleantechnica – PR News Wire – New Energy World – BrightSource – NRCM – DOI ]
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