Sun is the largest reserve of energy. Just what is needed is to trap and store it systematically and explore it to the maximum where energy is consumed hugely. And to trap it effectively and in a large scale, desert is the best and unhindered location for building solar farms. On these lines, Stirling Energy Systems is planning to build two separate solar farms, one with the capacity to generate 500 megawatts of electricity in the Mojave Desert near Victorville, California, for SoCal Edison, and a 300-megawatt plant in the Imperial Valley, near Calexico, California, for SDG&E. To buy all the energy the farms can turn out, the utilities have signed 20-year deals. The utilities have options to expand the plants if they are successful. Stirling Energy Systems uses 40-foot-tall curved dishes that focus the sun’s energy onto Stirling engines. Find more on Stirling engines in Treehugger.
Via: Treehugger, Wired