The Solar Project
Tuesday, 15th May 2007 by Alex Turnbull
This is the incredible Solar Project in the Mojave desert, California. Originally conceived as Solar One, this was the first test of a large scale thermal solar power tower power plant, and you can clearly make out the tower's shadow here.
It became Solar Two when a second ring of heliostats was added, making a total of 1926 heliostats with a total area of 82,750m². The idea is that the heliostats track the movement of the sun and focus the light onto the central tower, which stores the heat in molten salt.
Apparently Solar Two had the ability to produce 10 megawatts of power by redirecting the equivalent of 600 suns!
Solar Two was decommissioned in 1999, and was converted into an Air Cherenkov Telescope in 2001 (which measures gamma rays hitting the atmosphere), but there are currently plans underway to build Solar Tres in Spain.
Thanks to russ, Scott Ventura and Gesh.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
I’ll take it that one of them was the location for Sahara? Sweet, always wondered if it was real, CGI or a gigantic, purpose made set.
Well Lee, that’s exactly what I thought, but I couldn’t find a link to prove it! However I included it in the Movie Locations category anyway.
“by redirecting the equivalent of 600 suns!” – I think what is meant by that is the light falling on the collector on top of the tower is 600 times brighter than if there were no mirrors pointed at it.
the equivalent of one sun would melt the earth in a flash, and 600 would do that 600 times faster.
Is there any info on why the project failed? I assume it failed because it’s not like they built 100 more of them, or even continue to run this one.
Check here for the one in Spain: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3681938.stm I would say the project didn’t so much fail as that it was a testbed for new technology which is now taken one step further …
Ooooops, sorry. Use this instead: http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6610000/newsid_6617800/6617847.stm?bw=bb&mp=rm#
Not exactly heliostats but I installed these photovoltaic cells in nearby Victorville View Placemark
There’s a similar (now abandoned) project in Targassonne, Pyrenees, France. It was called Themis.
There is a similar, smaller installation outside Albuquerque. I used to be able to see the bright spot on the tower as I rode to school in the mornings.
I thought I’d do a little research for the “Sahara” movie location question (and read my post carefully before submitting):
http://www.cusslermen.com/SaharaProductionInformation.htm
Allan Cameron was responsible for designing the large solar power plant. “We built some of the mirrors; others were computer-generated”
Brilliant, yet again another reason why I come to GSS every day.
There was an experimental solar power station in Soviet Union, on the shore of Black Sea (cape Kazantip):
http://wikimapia.org/#lat=45.402541&lon=35.86313&z=17&l=1&m=s&v=2