The CSP Solar Power Plants
One of the largest solar power generators in the world is the SEGS (Solar Energy Generating Systems) which are located in the Mojave Desert of California. Consisting of nine huge solar power plants their total installed capacity is 354 MW. Around 90% of the electricity output is generated by the sunlight and natural gas is used only when the sunlight is insufficient to meet the power demand.
Unlike most of solar homes relying on the photovoltaic cell technology to create electricity, SEGS use concentrating solar power (CSP) technology to collect the sunlight and focus it to boil water which is then used to generate electricity. Other multi-megawatt photovoltaic plants also have been built in addition to the existing plants. The total area occupied by the solar plants is said to be more than 1,600 acres with 936,384 mirrors are set to automatically track the sun throughout the day.
All of these mirrors are directing the sunlight to a central tube filled with synthetic oil. The accumulated heat can reach over 750 degF. The synthetic oil then transfers its heat to water which boils and drives the steam turbine to generate electricity.
The CSP Advantages
One of the advantages of CSP systems is that CSP can be integrated fairly easily into today’s electric utility grid because they are relatively similar to most of the conventional power plants running on fossil fuels. Unlike the photovoltaic panels that don’t create electricity at night, CSP power plants can still produce electricity because the medium heated during the day can be stored in vessels to keep the turbines running at night.
The other advantage of the CSP is they produce no environmental contaminants or greenhouse gases and there is no cost spent on the energy source because we use free energy from the sun.
The CSP Disadvantages
Concentrating solar power plants occupy a large amount of land. The SEGS for example occupy more than 1,600 acres of land.
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