Solar Power in the Mojave Desert

American utilities company Pacific Gas & Electricity announced a solar power project which will produce enough energy to power 540,000 homes in California each year.

They will commission 5 solar power plants from BrightSource Energy which will be built in the Mojave desert, during the next decade, and generate around 900 megawatts of electricity.

BrightSource uses what it calls distributed power towers, or DPTs, in which sunlight from thousands of movable mirrors are concentrated to heat water to more than 1,000 degrees in a boiler to make steam. That steam feeds a turbine that makes electricity.

“...this is the biggest commitment ever in the history of solar,” said John Woolard, BrightSource Energy’s chief executive officer and president. “It’s a fairly significant undertaking on both sides.”

Shame they announce these things on April 1st!

[Via: Metaefficient ]