Monday, October 13, 2014

Sciencewizzard.blogspot.com




Ivanpah Solar Generating System

There is a massive solar power plant in Californian Mojave Desert called Ivanpah. It costed $2.2 billion dollars to make. The construction for this solar generating system started in 2010 and of course, it is still in use today. It consists of three towers. It is surrounded by more than 300,000 mirrors angled perfectly to reflect sunlight to the tower.  The top of the towers are black so they absorb A TON of thermal energy. Those towers absorb so much light, that they're having issues with birds flying through there, and catching on fire. Spoke pilots have even said that the light almost blinded them when they flew near there. What happens in those towers is that first, water gets pumped through there, and it's so hot that it bubbles and turns into steam. People take the pressure from that steam and use it to power generators, turbines, and things like that. Here is more info for those of those interested in Ivanpah.




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