There are several solar power plants in the Mojave Desert which supply power to the electricity grid. Insolation (solar radiation) in the Mojave Desert is among the best available in the United States, and some significant population centers are located in the area. These plants can generally be built in a few years because solar plants are built almost entirely with modular, readily available materials. Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) is the name given to nine solar power plants in the Mojave Desert which were built in the 1980s, the first commercial solar plant. These plants have a combined capacity of 354 megawatts (MW) which made them the largest solar power installation in the world, until Ivanpah Solar Power Facility was finished in 2014.
Nevada Solar One is a solar thermal plant with a 64 MW generating capacity, located near Boulder City, Nevada. Utility-Scale Solar Plant Goes Online in Nevada Environment News Service, June 4, 2007. Retrieved December 18, 2008. The Copper Mountain Solar Facility is a 150 MW photovoltaic power plant in Boulder City, Nevada. The Ivanpah Solar Power Facility is a 370 MW facility which consists of three separate solar thermal power plants just off interstate highway 15 on the Nevada-California border in the Mojave Desert. There are also plans to build other large solar plants in the Mojave Desert.Steven Mufson. Solar power project in Mojave Desert gets $1.4 billion boost from stimulus funds Washington Post, February 23, 2010.
Overview
The Southwestern United States is one of the world's best areas for insolation, and the Mojave Desert receives up to twice the sunlight received in other regions of the country. This abundance of solar energy makes solar power plants a cleaner alternative to traditional power plants, which burn fossil fuels such as oil and coal.National Renewable Energy Laboratory (2001). Concentrating Solar Power: Energy from Mirrors Retrieved December 18, 2008. Solar power stations provide an environmentally benign source of energy, produce virtually no emissions, and consume no fuel other than sunlight. Some groups are also encouraging more distributed generation, or rooftop solar.
In 2008, solar electricity was not cost competitive with bulk, baseload power. However, it does provide electricity when and where power is most limited and most expensive, which is a strategic contribution. Solar electricity mitigates the risk of fuel-price volatility and improves grid reliability. Since then costs have decreased to make solar electricity increasingly competitive.
While many of the costs of fossil fuels are well known, others (pollution related health problems, environmental degradation, the impact on national security from relying on foreign energy sources) are indirect and difficult to calculate. These are traditionally external to the pricing system, and are thus often referred to as externalities. A corrective pricing mechanism, such as a carbon tax, could lead to renewable energy, such as solar thermal power, becoming cheaper to the consumer than fossil fuel based energy.
Solar thermal power plants can generally be built in a few years because solar plants are built almost entirely with modular, readily available materials. In contrast, many types of conventional power projects, especially coal and nuclear plants, require long lead times.Solel (2007).Ten facts about solar thermal power Retrieved December 18, 2008.
Solar plants
Solar One and Solar Two
Solar power towers use thousands of individual sun-tracking mirrors (called heliostats) to reflect solar energy onto a central receiver located on top of a tall tower. The receiver collects the sun's heat in a heat-transfer fluid that flows through the receiver. The U.S. Department of Energy, with a consortium of utilities and industry, built the first two large-scale, demonstration solar power towers in the desert near Barstow, California.
Solar One operated successfully from 1982 to 1988, proving that solar power towers work efficiently to produce utility-scale power from sunlight. The Solar One plant used water/steam as the heat-transfer fluid in the receiver; this presented several problems in terms of storage and continuous turbine operation. To address these problems, Solar One was upgraded to Solar Two, which operated from 1996 to 1999. Both systems had a 10 MW power capacity.
The unique feature of Solar Two was its use of molten salt to capture and store the sun's heat. The very hot salt was stored and used when needed to produce steam to drive a turbine/generator that produces electricity. The system operated smoothly through intermittent clouds and continued generating electricity long into the night.Sandia Labs Shares Major Solar Success With Industrial Consortium Sandia News Release, June 5, 1996. Retrieved December 18, 2008. Solar Two was decommissioned in 1999, and was converted by the University of California, Davis, into CACTUS, an Air Cherenkov Telescope, in 2001, measuring gamma rays hitting the atmosphere.
Solar Energy Generating Systems
Trough systems predominate among today's commercial solar power plants. Nine separate trough power plants, called Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS), were built in the 1980s in the Mojave Desert near Barstow by the Israeli company BrightSource Energy (formerly Luz Industries). These plants have a combined capacity of . NextEra says that the solar plants power 232,500 homes (during the day, at peak power) and displace 3,800 tons of pollution per year that would have been produced if the electricity had been provided by fossil fuels, such as oil.SunLab (1998).Solar Trough Systems Retrieved December 18, 2008.
Trough systems convert the heat from the sun into electricity. Because of their parabolic shape, trough collectors can focus the sun at 30-60 times its normal intensity on a receiver pipe located along the focal line of the trough. Synthetic oil circulates through the pipe and captures this heat, reaching temperatures of 390 °C (735 °F). The hot oil is pumped to a generating station and routed through a heat exchanger to produce steam. Finally, electricity is produced in a conventional steam turbine. The SEGS plants operate on natural gas on cloudy days or after dark, and natural gas provides 25% of the total output. Critics note that this reliance on gas-fired power for "backup" electricity has, over the 35-year history of the plants, generated over 3 million tons of emissions more than if the electricity had been generated by a nuclear plant.Solar Electric Generating Station IX. NREL
Desert Sunlight Solar Farm The Desert Sunlight Solar Farm is a 550 megawatt (MWAC) photovoltaic power station approximately six miles north of Desert Center, California, in the Mojave Desert. It uses approximately 8.8 million cadmium telluride modules made by the US thin-film manufacturer First Solar. As of Fall 2015, the Solar Farm has the same 550 MW installed capacity as the Topaz Solar Farm in the Carrizo Plain region of Central California, making both of them tied for the second largest completed solar plants by installed capacity.Goldenstein, Taylor ( 9 February 1015) "Huge solar farm opens in California: Enough energy for 160,000 homes" Los Angeles Times.FirstSolar.com Desert Sunlight Solar Farm
Nevada Solar One Nevada Solar One has a 64-MW generating capacity and is located in Boulder City, Nevada. It was built by the U.S. Department of Energy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Acciona Solar.
Nevada Solar One uses parabolic troughs as thermal solar concentrators, heating tubes of liquid which act as solar receivers. These solar receivers are specially coated tubes made of glass and steel, and about 19,300 of these four meter long tubes are used in the plant. Nevada Solar One also uses a technology that collects extra heat by putting it into phase-changing molten salts, which enable energy to be drawn at night. Using thermal energy storage systems, solar thermal operating periods can even be extended to meet baseload needs. Solar thermal power plants designed for solar-only generation are well matched to summer noon peak loads in prosperous areas with significant cooling demands, such as the south-western United States.Spain Pioneers Grid-Connected Solar-Tower Thermal Power p. 3. Retrieved December 19, 2008
The cost of Nevada Solar One is in the range of $220–250 million. The power produced is slightly more expensive than wind power, but was less than photovoltaic (PV) power.A New Chapter Begins for Concentrated Solar Power Renewable Energy Access, February 11, 2006. Retrieved December 18, 2008 As photovoltaics became less expensive, some proposed CSP projects have been converted to photovoltaics projects.Renewable Energy Projects Approved Since the Beginning of Calendar Year 2009 Retrieved May 2, 2013
Copper Mountain Solar Facility The Copper Mountain Solar Facility is a 552 megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic power plant in Boulder City, Nevada.America's Largest PV Power Plant Is Now Live (December 6, 2010), Renewable Energy World.Copper Mountain Solar 1 Facility Retrieved May 2, 2013Sempra US Gas & Power begins building Copper Mountain Solar 3 Retrieved May 2, 2013 Sempra Generation began construction of the plant in January 2010 and the facility began generating electricity on December 1, 2010. At its construction peak more than 350 workers were installing the 775,000 First Solar panels on the 380-acre site. The power from Copper Mountain Solar Facility (and the adjacent 10 MW El Dorado Solar Power Plant) is being sold to Pacific Gas & Electric under separate 20-year contracts. Californian utilities were required to obtain 20 percent of their energy supply from renewable energy sources by the end of 2010, increasing to 33 percent by 2020.
Nellis Solar Power Plant
In December 2007, the U.S. Air Force announced the completion of the Nellis Solar Power Plant, a solar photovoltaic (PV) system, at Nellis Air Force Base in Clark County, Nevada. Occupying of land leased from the Air Force at the western edge of the base, this ground-mounted photovoltaic system employs an advanced sun tracking system, designed and deployed by SunPower. Tilted toward the south, each set of solar panels rotates around a central bar to track the sun from east to west.SunPower (2007). Nation’s Largest Solar PV System Takes Flight at Nellis Air Force Base Retrieved December 18, 2008. The 14 MW system generates more than 30 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year (about 82 thousand kilowatt-hours per day) and supply approximately 25 percent of the total power used at the base. The Nellis Solar Power Plant was one of the largest solar photovoltaic systems in North America. Renewable Energy Access, December 18, 2007. Retrieved December 18, 2008. Largest U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System Begins Construction at Nellis Air Force Base PRNewswire, April 23, 2007. Retrieved December 18, 2008.
Ivanpah Solar Power Facility
The 392 MW Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, located southwest of Las Vegas, is the world's largest solar-thermal power plant project, which became fully operational on February 13, 2014. BrightSource Energy received a $1.6 billion loan guarantee from the United States Department of Energy to build the project, which deploys 347,000 heliostat mirrors focusing solar energy on boilers located on centralized solar power towers. In February 2012, Ivanpah was awarded the CSP (Concentrating Solar Power) Project of the Year by Solar Power Generation USA.
Mojave Solar Project