, World’s Biggest Solar thermal power plant goes online in California desert
World’s largest solar project, Ivanpah solar thermal power station officially opened on February 13, 2014.
Sprawling across 5 square miles (13 square kilometres) in the Mojave desert near the California-Nevada border, the $2.2 billion (USD) Ivanpah solar Electric Generating System has more than 340,000 computer controlled mirrors that focus reflected sunlight onto boilers located on the top of three towers, each of which is 150 feet tall (45 meters). The sun heats water inside the towers, creating steam that moves turbines and generates enough emissions-free electricity to power 140,000 homes, or about 392-megawatts. Far from a distance, these mirrors which are known as heliostats look like a clear lake rising from the desert.
