User:ZyMOS/Solar one

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Solar One is a pilot solar-thermal project in the Mojave Desert near Barstow, California.

Solar One was the first test of a large scale thermal solar power tower, power plant. Solar One was designed by the Department of Energy (DOE), Southern California Edison, LA Dept of Water and Power, and California Energy Commission. It was located in Daggett, California, which is about 10 miles east Barstow. Solar One's method of collecting power was based on concentrating the suns energy to produce heat and run a generator. It had a number of large mirrors, or heliostats, that track the sun, reflecting the suns light on a large tower. A black-colored receiver, on top of the tower, was used transferred the heat to an oil transfer fluid. The heat was then used to boil water, which turned turbines, much like a traditional power plant. It produced 10 MW of electricity. Solar One was completed in 1981 and was operational from 1982 to 1986. Solar Two can be seen from Interstate 40.

Nevada Solar One shares a similar name to Solar One, how ever it is quite different. It uses a solar thermal parabolic trough system and when completed will generate 64MW.


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[edit] Solar Two

A photo of one of Solar Two's heliostats taken in 2003. The solar power tower can be seen in the background.
A photo of one of Solar Two's heliostats taken in 2003. The solar power tower can be seen in the background.

In 1995 Solar One was converted into Solar Two, by added a second ring of larger 95m² heliostats around the existing Solar One, totaling 1818 heliostats. This gave Solar Two the capability of redirecting the equivalent of 600 suns and the ability to producing 10 megawatt's of power. Solar Two used molten salt, a combination of 60% NaNO3 and 40% KNO3, as a energy storage medium instead of water or oil. This helped in energy storage during brief interruptions in sunlight due to loads. The molten salt also allowed the energy to be stored in large tanks for future use such as night time. Solar Two was decommissioned in 1999, and was converted by the University of California, Davis, into a Air Cherenkov Telescope in 2001, measuring gamma rays hitting the atmosphere.

"We're proud of Solar Two's success as it marks a significant milestone in the development of large-scale solar energy projects," said U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.
"This technology has been successfully demonstrated and is ready for commercialization. From 1994 to 1999, the Solar 2 project demonstrated the ability of solar molten salt technology to provide long-term, cost effective thermal energy storage for electricity generation.", Boeing

[edit] Solar Tres

Due to the success of Solar Two, a commercial power plant, called Solar Tres, is being built using Solar One and Solar Two's technology. Solar Tres will be three times larger than Solar Two With 2493, 93m sq² heliostats. They will be made of a highly reflective glass with metal back to reduce costs by about 45%. A larger storage tank will be used giving the plant the ability to store 600MWh allowing the plant to run continuously during the summer. By simplifying the pumping mechanism and improving the molten salt composition the plant will gain a 6% increase in efficiency over Solar Two

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Category:Renewable energy Category:Sun