Solar energy even at night? This is the beginning of a new era of humanity. The revolutionary plan of California - 33% of all energy from the sun and wind in 5 years (!). The state continues to ramp up its renewable energy capacity at a tremendous pace in an effort to provide a third of its total energy consumption from solar, wind and geysers by 2020. And here is another mega power plant in operation. It is the world's largest solar solar thermal station. Today it is no longer experimental, but a common working technology. About 100 such stations have already been built around the world (all in the last 5 years), at least 50* are on the way, and some of them can already generate energy even at night. New California station provides clean electricity to 140,000 homes. How? Meet Ivanpa Solar Electric System. Let's take a closer look at how it all works and what it threatens us all with.
2. Ivanpah Solar Station is located in the Mojave Desert, 3 hours east of Los Angeles. Its construction took about three years, costing 2 billion 200 million dollars, and finally, in the spring of 2014, it was put into operation. The station produces absolutely clean energy, without the need to burn any fuel. Energy is drawn from the sun, but the method is different from solar panels. Pay attention to the three towers surrounded by thousands of mirrors - they are the whole secret.
3. Ivanpah station does not use the already familiar solar panels(photovoltaic modules). Instead, they use completely ordinary mirrors, like those that hang in our house. 
4. Each mirror module is a system of two large mirrors the size of Garage Doors. Such a module is called a heliostat. There are 173,000 such heliostats at the station. 
5. All these heliostat mirrors reflect the sun's rays to the tops of those same three tall towers located in the center. Each heliostat is movable, and with the help of a computer, all 170,000 heliostats are constantly turning to follow the sun. Thus, the sun's rays fall on the tops of the towers constantly, until the sun has gone below the horizon. 
6. As you may have guessed, at the top of the towers there are boilers with liquid, which turns into steam when heated. Exactly the same boilers are located in the thermal power plants familiar to everyone, but they are heated there by burning gas or coal. Here only inexhaustible energy of the Sun! By the way, the total capacity of the Ivanpa Solar station is 392 megawatts. To be clear, this is quite comparable to the average Moscow CHPP (For example, CHPP-16 in the Khoroshevo-Mnevniki district, which runs on gas, generates 360 megawatts). 
7. The higher the tower, the more mirrors can be placed around it. These towers are very large - with a height of 50 storey house(148 meters). At the peak of the day, the boiler can heat up to 700 degrees and even more. The steam goes down to the turbine and rotates it - electrical energy is generated. Just! This principle of energy generation is called solar thermal. But what happens after sunset? 
8. The advantage of solar thermal power plants over conventional solar panels is the ability to store excess energy at the peak, and therefore work after sunset. To put it simply, part of the heated liquid is temporarily pumped into special huge storage facilities, and gradually released from there after sunset, continuing to turn the turbine. The storage facilities can keep the turbines of such stations running up to 15 hours after sunset at full power. Thus, solar thermal stations equipped with thermal storage can generate energy even after sunset, and some even work around the clock. Ivanpah station does not yet have its own heat storages, but in this video, using the example of a similar station in Spain, which already knows how to store heat for the night, it is explained in detail how it all works (at the moment of 2 min. 50 seconds they just talk about 15 hourly supply of energy in its vaults).
9. An interesting feature construction of the station is a program of environmental protection around it. Yes, the station itself is absolutely harmless - these are ordinary mirrors heating a steam boiler. But its construction endangered rare species of turtles living in the desert. Therefore, the station owner company conducted special program: a vast area was purchased away from the station, where about 200 rare turtles were relocated. The program cost the company $22 million, which was spent on buying land, hiring biologists, and relocating unique animals. 
10. In conclusion, I would like to say that 33% of energy from alternative sources in the state of California by 2020 is a colossal figure. For those who don't know, California's GDP is $2.2 trillion, which is more than the GDP of most countries on the planet. This is even more than such powerful countries as Russia, Italy, India, Canada, Australia or Spain. You need a lot of energy, a lot! And now a real revolution of alternative energy is taking place before our eyes. The media and analysts have officially declared the era of alternative energy open. Solar panels prices have fallen sharply and are sold in ordinary city stores. According to TIME log every 3 minutes at least 1 american house switches to solar energy by installing a panel on the roof and this dynamics is growing. The government strongly supports alternative energy: interest-free loans on the panel for ordinary people, special laws obliging to purchase alternative energy for large companies. According to the same TIME, 90% of new generating stations commissioned in the US in 2014 are solar power plants. All this has led to the fact that the amount of harmful emissions in the United States has already decreased by 17% since 2005. Ivanpah Solar is just one of 7 large solar power plants just commissioned in California. Wind and geothermal are also being introduced. Putting this plant into operation is equivalent to removing 400,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere annually. And this is as if 77,000 cars that smoked the atmosphere immediately disappeared from the roads. This is happening today, it is a reality, it is already a common modern technology.
1. Solar Star - 579 MW
Solar Star (lit. " solar star”) is a solar power plant with a capacity of 579 MW. Located in Kern County, California, USA. At the time of construction, June 2015, it was the largest power plant in the world in terms of installed capacity (A little later in 2015, this championship passed to the Longyangxia Dam power plant Solar Park in China, its capacity was 850 MW).Photos of Solar Star power plant:
Photo source: http://www.mortenson.com/solar/projects/solar-star-i-and-ii
2. Topaz Solar Farm - 550 MW
Topaz Solar Farm is a 550 MW solar farm located in San Luis Obispo, California. Functioning since November 2014.
Photo source: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topaz_Solar_Farm
3. Desert Sunlight Solar Farm - 550 MW
Desert Sunlight Solar Farm is a 550 MW solar farm located in the Sonoran Desert, California. Built in January 2015.
Photo source: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-solar-farm-20150209-story.html
4. Copper Mountain Solar Facility - 458 MW
Copper Mountain Solar Facility is a 458 MW solar power plant located in Boulder City, Nevada. Built by Sempra Generation in 2010.
5. Agua Caliente Solar Project - 290 MW
Agua Caliente Solar Project is a photovoltaic plant with a total capacity of 290 megawatts (MW). Located in Yuma County, Arizona, USA. 
Photo source: http://www.semprarenewables.com/project/copper-mountain-solar-1/
Solar power even at night? This is the beginning of a new era of humanity. California's Revolutionary Plan - 33% of all solar and wind energy in just 5 years. The state continues to ramp up its renewable energy capacity at a tremendous pace in an effort to provide a third of its total energy consumption from solar, wind and geysers by 2020. And here is another mega power plant in operation. It is the world's largest solar solar thermal station. Today it is no longer experimental, but a common working technology. About 100 such stations have already been built around the world (all in the last 5 years), at least 50 more are on the way, and some of them can already generate energy even at night. New California station provides clean electricity to 140,000 homes. How? Meet: Ivanpa Solar Electric System. Let's take a closer look at how it all works and what it threatens us all with.
2. Ivanpah Solar Station is located in the Mojave Desert, 3 hours east of Los Angeles. Its construction took about three years, costing 2 billion 200 million dollars, and finally, in the spring of 2014, it was put into operation. The station produces absolutely clean energy, without the need to burn any fuel. Energy is drawn from the sun, but the method is different from solar panels. Pay attention to the three towers surrounded by thousands of mirrors - they are the whole secret.
3. Ivanpah station does not use the already familiar solar panels (photovoltaic modules). Instead, they use completely ordinary mirrors, like those that hang in our house.
4. Each mirror module is a system of two large garage door-sized mirrors. This module is called heliostat. There are 173,000 such heliostats at the station.
5. All these heliostat mirrors reflect the sun's rays to the tops of those same three tall towers located in the center. Each heliostat is movable, and with the help of a computer, everything 170 thousand heliostats always turning towards the sun. Thus, the sun's rays fall on the tops of the towers constantly, until the sun has gone below the horizon.
6. As you may have guessed, at the top of the towers there are boilers with liquid, which turns into steam when heated. Exactly the same boilers are located in the thermal power plants familiar to everyone, but they are heated there by burning gas or coal. Here only inexhaustible energy of the Sun! By the way, the total capacity of the Ivanpa Solar station is 392 megawatts. To be clear, this is quite comparable to the average Moscow CHPP (For example, CHPP-16 in the Khoroshevo-Mnevniki district, which runs on gas, generates 360 megawatts).
7. The higher the tower, the more mirrors can be placed around it. These towers are very large - the height of a 50-storey building ( 148 meters). At the peak of the day, the boiler can heat up to 700 degrees and even more. The steam goes down to the turbine and rotates it - electrical energy is generated. Just! This principle of energy generation is called solar thermal. But what happens after sunset?
8. The advantage of solar thermal power plants over conventional solar panels is the ability to store excess energy at the peak, which means work after sunset. To put it simply, part of the heated liquid is temporarily pumped into special huge storage facilities, and gradually released from there after sunset, continuing to turn the turbine. The storage facilities can keep the turbines of such stations running up to 15 hours after sunset at full power. Thus, solar thermal stations equipped with thermal storage can generate energy even after sunset, and some even work around the clock. Ivanpah station does not yet have its own heat storages, but in this video, using the example of a similar station in Spain, which already knows how to store heat for the night, it is explained in detail how it all works (at the moment of 2 min. 50 seconds they just talk about 15 hourly supply of energy in its vaults).
9. An interesting feature of the construction of the station is the program environmental protection around her. Yes, the station itself is absolutely harmless - these are ordinary mirrors heating a steam boiler. But its construction endangered rare species of turtles living in the desert. Therefore, the company that owns the station carried out a special program: a vast area was bought away from the station, where about 200 rare turtles were relocated. The program cost the company $22 million, which was spent on buying land, hiring biologists, and relocating unique animals.
10. In conclusion, I would like to say that 33% of energy from alternative sources in the state of California by 2020 is a colossal figure. For those who don't know, California's GDP is $2.2 trillion, which is more than the GDP of most countries on the planet. This is even more than such powerful countries as Russia, Italy, India, Canada, Australia or Spain. You need a lot of energy, a lot! And now the real thing is happening before our eyes alternative energy revolution.
The media and analysts have officially declared the era of alternative energy open. Solar panels have fallen sharply in price and are sold in ordinary city stores. According to TIME magazine, every 3 minutes at least 1 American home switches to solar energy by installing a panel on the roof and this trend is growing. The government supports alternative energy in every possible way: interest-free panel loans for ordinary people, special laws obliging large companies to purchase alternative energy.
According to the same TIME, 90% of new generating stations commissioned in the US in 2014 are solar power plants. All this has led to the fact that the amount of harmful emissions in the United States has already decreased by 17% since 2005. Ivanpah Solar is just one of 7 large solar power plants just commissioned in California. Wind and geothermal are also being introduced. Putting this plant into operation is equivalent to removing 400,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere annually. And this is as if 77,000 cars that smoked the atmosphere immediately disappeared from the roads. This is happening today, it is a reality, it is already a common modern technology.
The precious name "Topaz" was given to the most powerful power plant in the world, which is based on solar energy. This already world-famous power plant was built in California (USA), on the territory of the Carrizo plain.
A few years ago, the millionth jubilee FSLR module was installed here, and by now, 9 million high-quality solar panels have already been installed.
Development of solar farms
This type of power plant is also called "solar farms". The capacity of the "solar" project "Topaz" is determined by the figure of 550 MW. The implementation of this object began in 2012, and its completion was planned for 2015. At the same time, a professional approach to work and successful investments made it possible to complete the construction and design of the grandiose structure a little earlier. The official owner of the MidAmerican Solar power plant is a subsidiary of MidAmerican Renewables.
Another record can safely be called the costly part allocated for the project - almost 2.5 billion dollars. The developers are confident that their offspring is able to provide electrical energy for at least 160,000 homes in California.
Site selection for the Topaz power plant
Every detail and all related factors were calculated, including the place for the location of the solar power plant - its creators did not choose it by chance. The terms of the project initially implied the existence of certain conditions, among which the main ones are:
- Location in the immediate vicinity of settlements.
- The presence of one or more power lines.
- Minimum Negative influence, which can provide the presence of a station on environment in a specific locality.
It is necessary to be aware of the fact that on the Carrizo plain people have long been engaged in cultivating the land and agricultural production. Therefore, when launching the project, it was necessary to alienate a certain amount of land beneficial for cultivation. The developers justify these forced actions by the fact that the lands in this area have limited fertility, not actually being such a profitable region in terms of agriculture.
US plans for alternative energy
Although development projects are considered the most convenient and profitable, almost every one of them faces protests from various "green" organizations. But it is important to note that, even partly polluting the plots of land allocated for stations, the very concept of their subsequent work allows solving some of the environmental problems.
In the near future, the United States of America generally expects to get as close as possible to the status of a world leader in the use of environmentally friendly types of energy. To this end, a special state program has been developed, according to which, already in 2020, one third of the total energy produced in the country will be transferred to environmentally friendly, renewable sources.
The United States suspended the construction of two nuclear power plants in South Carolina. According to local media, the projects are frozen due to unprofitability. Two more NPP projects are also likely to be frozen in the state of Georgia. As scientists note, the peaceful atom is gradually becoming a thing of the past, giving way to renewable energy sources (RES) - in particular, solar power plants (SPS). By 2050, nuclear power plants are expected to be replaced by SPPs everywhere, and such terrible accidents like Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011 will never happen again.
There are about 130 abandoned nuclear power plants in the US today. Their places in the market are confidently occupied by SES. For 2016 market solar energy doubled in the US. Moreover, if before 2011 solar panels were most often used for domestic purposes, now in the construction SES funds industrialists are actively investing.
The advantages of renewable energy compared to nuclear power plants are recognized even by influential lobbyists of the peaceful nuclear industry. The fact is that in addition to the constant threat of nuclear power plant disasters with subsequent environmental damage, nuclear energy has become too expensive and unprofitable.
Today, the United States ranks fifth in the top ten countries in the use of solar energy. Unfortunately, Russia is not on this list yet. Just as the US has pioneered the use of shale oil and gas, it is also leading the way in replacing nuclear power plants with solar power plants.
Today in the US, the largest solar power plants are located in the states of Nevada (60 MW), California (250 MW) and Arizona (280 MW).
Currently, the closure of nuclear power plants in the United States has become massive. For example, in 2014, the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Wyndham County near Springfield was shut down. US operator Entergy has already announced plans to shut down the Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Massachusetts, the Palisades nuclear power plant on Lake Michigan, the Indian Point nuclear power plant 40 kilometers from New York, and the FitzPatrick nuclear power plant on the coast of Ontario.
The reason for the closure of nuclear power plants is simple: expensive nuclear energy cannot compete with cheap solar energy.
On the one hand, the closure of nuclear power plants is associated with a reduction in personnel and the need for waste disposal. But on the other hand, thanks to the solar power plant, billions of dollars will be saved and harm to the environment will be minimized.
For example, on the site of a nuclear power plant that was not completed in 1981 in the state of Tennessee, a solar power plant with a capacity of 1 MW is operating, the service life of which is about 30 years.
According to media reports, the project to build a nuclear power plant in Tennessee was frozen after the largest in history nuclear energy US accident at Three Mile Island.
By the way, the accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant was the largest accident in the history of the US nuclear power industry. An emergency occurred on March 28, 1979 at the second power unit of the station: a leak of the coolant of the reactor plant. About 50% of the reactor core melted, and the territory of the nuclear power plant was subjected to significant radioactive contamination. It was this accident that, long before Chernobyl and Fukushima, caused a surge of anti-nuclear sentiment in American society.
As a result, the authorities were forced to cancel the commissioning of more than 70 previously planned nuclear power plants.
Today, it seems that public concern about the dangers of nuclear power plants is gradually weakening, as the world enters the era of renewable energy and solar power plants. And the meaning of this historical process hard to overestimate.