Southern California to Get Major Boost in Solar Energy
Southern California Edison (SCE) and BrightSource Energy announced an agreement on Wednesday that would bring seven new solar thermal projects online, producing a total of 1,300 MW of renewable energy– enough to power nearly 845,000 homes.
BrightSource, which has Google as an investor, uses a proprietary “power tower” technology that focuses thousands of small mirrors towards a boiler sitting atop a tower in order to produce high temperature steam. The super heated steam is used to spin a conventional turbine which generates electricity. The steam is then cooled back into water and reused by the system.
The first of the seven new power towers could open Ivanpah, CA by 2013 and will produce 100 MW of electricity.
According to SCE, it is currently America’s leading user of renewable energy with 1,137 megawatts from wind, 906 megawatts from geothermal, 356 megawatts from solar (80% of all produced in the U.S.), 332 megawatts from small hydro, and 185 megawatts from biomass.
This agreement, by producing 1,300 MW from renewable solar thermal rather than dirty coal, will avoid emitting more than two million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually (the equivalent of 335,000 cars).
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