New Ways to Catch Rays
Thermal trough
This is the world's largest solar power
plant, situated on a stretch of land larger than New York's Central
Park. Out in the Mojave Desert, three hours from Los Angeles, rows
of trough-shaped mirrors collect and concentrate the sun's heat and
ultraviolet radiation to cook tubes of synthetic oil up to
750°F. The hot oil is piped to a generating station to
flash-boil water, making steam that drives a traditional power
turbine. Built in the mid-1980s, the Kramer Junction plant has been
reliably providing about 350 megawatts of peak power to the L.A.
grid, enough to power more than 150,000 homes.