World's Largest Thin-Film Solar Power Plant Opens

What Electric Utility Owns the electricity produced by the array?

They should substitute a perforated screen-type backing for the solid black backing, that way some vegetation could grow underneath. That would require more preventive maintenance, but no more than running a lawn mower under the assembly.

graze animals underneath it.

Don't put grass under the cells. Honestly, you sound like the people who worry about birds getting hit by windmills. Not every square inch of earth must have an ecosystem.

If you really need plants under there, put in moss or something doesn't need to be mown.

Do you realize how many birds and bats are killed by industrial wind turbines? ALOT. this isn't a few birds, many times they place these in the migratory paths of the birds such as bald eagles. not smart, stop being stupid. the kills are in the hundreds, PER TURBINE, PER YEAR.

--
ed: Actually, a lot more birds are killed by house cats, buildings and electrical transport lines. These should probably be your priorities if you want to save birds.

Also, see this.

I like the idea of grass underneath the cells. Then add solar charged robotic lawn mowers that wander about trimming it.

Clean the air a little and trim without polluting.

Davemon

ALL ALTERNATE ENERGY RESOURCES TO BE COMBINED AT ONE GEOGRAPHICAL SITE AND HAS TO OPERATE IN TENDEM TO HAVE MAXIMUM OPTIMAL USE OF RESOURCES

My name is Rob Low and I am a student at Epping Middle School in Epping New Hampshire. My science class is doing a power plant project. Could anyone please send me by mail any information you have about solar power plants. Thank you very much.

Rob Low
Epping Middle School
33 Prescott Rd
Epping New Hampshire, 03042

My name is Rob Low and I am a student at Epping Middle School in Epping New Hampshire. My science class is doing a power plant project. Could anyone please send me by mail any information you have about solar power plants. Thank you very much.

Rob Low
Epping Middle School
33 Prescott Rd
Epping New Hampshire, 03042

I don't see why people are still trying to create solar plants like that. Solar cells cost way too much and for the area they cover they don't produce a lot of electricity. A wind turbine on a quarter of the lot size could produce more than twice as much power, work day or night while performing better in stormy weather. Oh and for those of you who think wind turbines are bird killers... What do think our current power plants are doing to not only birds but our entire environment? New turbines don't even spin fast enough to kill a bird. Old ones did but new ones spin slower but produce more power due to their gear ratio. They utilize wind force, not wind speed.

Hello. My nmae is Lauren Haley and my science class is doing a project on power plants. My power plant is Solar Tower power. If you could send me some information ,by mai, to help me with the project that would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely, Lauren Haley

Lauren Haley
Epping Middle School
33 Prescott Rd
Epping NH 03042

avvsg@yahoo.com

how much does the project cost? I couldn't really find it on the page anywhere.

When you consider that 7sq kilometers of panels could power a 30,000 pop city, you start to realize the magnitude of the field size.
Plants like that will be viewable from space.

it is very important to think of the ecosystem in terms of the footprint of large solar arrays on how it impacts wildlife and options to take advantage of the situation as well. For example ginseng could be planted in some mid warmer regions with the panels actually acting as a shade, and electric running the irrigation. Cattle farmers could see a dual purpose as well. Desert animals may actually be forced to relocate.

We need all forms of renewable energy to hope to meet our current reckless energy consumption. However, wind power alone will not meet our current global energy demand of 50 Terawatts. The only two sources of power capable of meeting our projected energy consumption over the next 50 years are solar and nuclear. So, choose your future.

Best regards,
Justin Runnels
BS Physics
Gulf South Solar

Hum....

So folks are worried about solar energy's physical foot print scaring. Lets take this to private energy plant model where evry roof top in the US has at least 1/3 to 1/2 covered with thin solar film feeding some new kind of non-lead/acid based battery system. Now while this may not replace all power needed by the average home owner, it would significantly reduce our monthly electric and gas bills.

Now imaging the scale of this foot print, that by the way would not cover grass fields or even desert sands, just ugly roof top shingles. The scale of this power substitution would have all oil/gas producing countries looking to establish thin film solar plants as quickly as possible.

RDS

We need a national policy that moves to this private power plant

Can any one help by guiding me how much it cost to setup a Solar Power Plant, and what all things i have to take care of while thinking to setup a solar power plant with a capacity of 3-5 MW. I would appreciate if anyone can guide me

I think a lot of you guys are thinking too industrially. Why should we make a plant dedicated to giving us power when we can all do it ourselves? Self sustaining homes would be probably the most efficient way of living.

Imagine if every roof had solar panels and a wind turbine on top of it, you wouldnt be "wasting space" at all. This attached to an efficient grid system would probably be optimal.

Main point: Don't say no to making solar power plants, but if we put the wind and solar technologies on our own houses, as a primary source, we can use the grid system as a backup instead of a primary source, therefore we would need to take up less space because the amount of power required from that plant would be a lot less. Just a thought.

Solar energy's future is likely in parabolic mirrors that track the sun. Anyone of you can build them your selves. Big corps. dont like the idea that ppl depend on them selves. Because if you do it on your own. they cannot continually milk your effort / energy you consume to make a living.

This is the way it is in every part of life: energy, food, transportation. All things that could be close to free. All the talk that water is running out is stupid in a sense that we could use solar dehydration methods to clean saltwater with parabolic mirrors that heat sea water in a ceramic container.

In the article it is mentioned that it will produce 5.7 million kilowatt-hours of solar electricity per year. Average daily production is 15.6 MW-hours per day. So the peak solar hours in the region is around 2.6 hours ( 15.6 MW-h / 6 MW(*)).

Solar pick hours are around 4.53 in tropics and a little bit more in Mediterranean region (due to less cloud). If this system was installed in tropics it would produce nearly 10 million MW-hours.

Why this panels are not installed in tropics or in Mediterranean region? Well, there must be a government willing to waste tax payers money in order to make this project feasible.

(*) I assume this 6 MW is peak power.