Ivanpah changed what I know about solar power
Three separate solar collectors at the Ivanpah power plant in California
On this most recent road trip around the Western US, I had casually picked out a few energy-related sites that I thought would be cool to drive by if not stop and visit. And in my early research into all the different kinds of renewable energy, I had read about Ivanpah and it definitely stood out as a different kind of solar energy installation.
But it wasn’t until I happen to glance out my window as I crossed into California from Nevada that I truly appreciated how amazing this place is. I stopped to take a few pictures from the side of the road but honestly, it was hard to look directly at the towers themselves - it was like trying to look at the Sun, make that three suns!
Ivanpah is one of the largest concentrating solar plant, or CSP in the world (actually 3 nearly identical co-located plants) covering 3,500 acres of desert habitat and is capable of delivering almost 400 Megawatts of power at full capacity. Solar “power towers” work by reflecting the sun’s rays off of tens of thousands of synchronized mirrors called heliostats onto special receivers that capture the heat to boil water.
There are other CSPs like Crescent Dunes that are able to generate enough heat that, they can melt salt! The molten salt mixture can even be stored (#energystorage) and is used to convert water into steam. Steam leads to turbines … and the rest of the story is probably familiar to most.
Here I zoomed in on one of the really bright towers
Since coming online in early 2014, Ivanpah has had its share of challenges, specifically in terms of meeting its intended output capacity but also in terms of the negative impact it has had on local wildlife. And, you should know (I didn’t at first) that it still needs to burn an hour’s worth of natural gas each day to prime the system - not exactly 100% renewable!
But what I find most interesting is that concentrating solar power plants represent a completely different way of harnessing the sun’s energy. Most of us associate solar power with photovoltaic (PV) panels like those on many houses and buildings. But researchers have been looking at other options too and while they don’t yet enjoy the same level of success as PV panels, they are viable options.
Parabolic Trough Power Plant. Source here.
For example, there is a related solar power technology called solar troughs that use curved mirrors to capture the Sun’s rays and reflect them back on pipes to heat liquids. So, we now have multiple ways to tap into the Sun as an immense energy source, converting both its light and it’s heat into clean power.
If you want to learn more but don’t want to take a road trip, there is plenty of information to consume. I found these resources helpful in learning more about the innovative ways we can use the Sun to meet our own power needs:
Concentrated Solar Power - Eric Layton provides a wonderful, 3-minute explanation video on YouTube about CSP.
Solar Trough Power - The US Department of Energy produced this 2-page overview of Solar Electricity Generating Systems or SEGS which employ hundreds of parabolic-trough solar collectors (i.e. curved mirrors) to capture and use heat from the Sun, instead of light.
Solar Thermal Collectors - this kind of technology can potentially be scaled down for home use, for example as a water heating alternative.