SolarReserve, a California solar power company, said today "that it has received permit approvals from the Arizona Corporation Commission, for the firm's 150 megawatt Crossroads Solar Energy Project. The firm said the final approval includes a transmission line to connect the project to Arizona Public Service's transmission grid. SolarReserve said the project will supply approximately 450,000 megawatt hours of green energy to Arizona. The firm is using technology developed by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, which uses molten salt to store solar energy."
The plant will be built just west of Gila Bend.
This is an interesting project, but also really expensive too. The projected cost of this facility is 650 million dollars. It delivers 51.4 Mw per hour on average and covers 4 square miles. To equal a 1000 MW nuclear power plant, the solar facility would cover some 70 square miles and have a construcyion cost of 11.4 billion dollars.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how much material goes into a facility that size and how much energy it takes to produce those materials....mining to finish product and how that compares to nuclear energy. Anyone have an answer or can point me in the right direction to a answer?