A typical system is the Tower of Power above, and the largest such development is soon to go on line at Ivanpah, California, on the border with Nevada. Each tower is nearly 500 feet tall and there are 173,000 heliostats ("tracking mirror").
Brightsource and Bechtel are responsible for this effort. There were 45 million separate parts
Covering 4,000 acres ("and this is one negative, space"), costing 2.2 billion, at peak the facility will produce close to 400 megawatts, slightly less than half the amount of a typical nuclear powerplant. Of course, the nuclear plant is good for 24 hours / day, while our Sun is only out there for, effectively (clouds, etc.), a third that. In comparison, then, a 1000 MW nuclear powerplant would actually almost produce ten times the electricity of this specific solar station on 2% the land. And I say this even though I am anti-nuclear and pro-solar. Read my "HUFFINGTON POST" article on:
Renewable Electricity is Our Only Viable Option
But the point is that this is the most viable future option for utilities, and, over time, if storage is included, should eventually cost less than a similar PV field. These 392 MWs will bring the world capacity to over 1000 MW. However, last year 3,300 MW of PV was installed, just in the USA. Yet, 14,000 MW of these solar thermal farms are said to be globally underway.
Can you believe that environmentalists almost scuttled this effort? One hundred fifty desert tortoises lived on that site. A compromise was reached. A sum of 50 MILLION was set aside to move those creatures. The project will come to fruition because the Federal Government paid almost three-quarters ("1.6 billion") the total cost and this all sits on public lands.
These estimates vary quite wildly, but here is a California estimate:
LEVELIZED ENERGY (US/MWH
DIVIDE BY A THOUSAND FOR CENTS/KWH)
Advanced Nuclear 67
Coal 4-88
Gas 87-346
Geothermal 67
Hydro power 48-86
Wind power 60
Solar 116-312
Biomass 47-117
Fuel Cell 86-111
Wave Power 611
In the longer term, the Middle East should greatly benefit from solar thermal energy, as they are "soon" to run out of oil, and the Sun will be around for billions of years. Saudi Arabia, for example, dedicated the "largest" solar thermal plant last year.
