Successful Solar Installations Around The World

While some lawmakers in Washington D.C

While some lawmakers in Washington D.C. continue to push for refinement of the existing oil and coal industries, innovative companies headed by a new generation of forward-thinking entrepreneurs have continued to press on with the development of practical solar power plants throughout the world. As nonrenewable fossil-fuel stores are further depleted, new technologies such as the concentrated photovoltaic system (CPV) and multijunction solar cells are leading the rest of the world toward the day when the use of petroleum will be limited to the manufacture of some types of plastics and solar power generation will be the planet's primary source of energy.

Not surprisingly, some of the most successful solar power plants are found in parts of the world in which the price of oil is prohibitively expensive, such as Europe and Japan. Until now, most of these have been of the indirect type, in which the sun's rays are concentrated toward a single area in order to generate heat. This heat is in turn used to boil water which drives steam turbines; in this respect, they operate in much the same manner as coal, oil and gas-fired power plants, the only difference being that solar energy is used in place of the fossil fuel. Although far cleaner than fossil fuels, such solar power plants are not particularly efficient.

A concentrated photovoltaic system, or CPV, is another matter. This type of solar generation uses sunlight directly, and with current technologies, is approaching efficiency rates of over 40%. The Moura CPV facility in Portugal and Germany's Waldpolenz Solar Park are two of the most successful solar power plants in the world today; both of these generate in excess of 40 megawatts.

The United States has some catching up to do, but has come a long way. In 2009, construction began outside of San Luis Obispo, California on the Topaz Solar Farm. Although costs are projected to be in the neighborhood of $1 billion, it is expected to generate 1100 gigawatt-hours every year, dwarfing the capacities of the European plants.

Less than three hundred miles to the east in the deserts around Las Vegas, a locally-based company is leading the way forward with the latest multijunction solar cells at the University of Nevada campas. Multijunction solar cells represent the most efficient form of direct solar energy yet developed; rather than simply using part of the solar spectrum, these cells are able to capture solar energy from the entire spectrum from near infrared to ultraviolet. It is only one of several projects this company has developed over the past few years in the Las Vegas metro area; its CPV power plant at Nevada Energy's Clark Generating Station has been a fixture along U.S. Highway 95 since 2006 and continues to supplement the utility's power supply during times of peak demand.

Successful Solar Installations Around The World

By: Wayne Hemrick

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