ESolar’s Plans for PowerPlants: Electricity powered by water heated by the sun
Posted by carrie_roll
I came across this article while surfing information and news about the evironment, and found the company they talk about int he article, eSolar, abolutely fascinating!
There’s something comparable to what eSolar does in the movie “Sahara”, but I hadn’t ever seen it explained as clearly as it was in this little video put together by eSolar.
Basically, the idea is to take a bunch of mirrors, move them so that they reflect the sun’s light onto a tower. Inside of the tower is water. That water boils, turns to steam.
That steam moves a turbine which creates electricity and sends it out over power lines.
Pretty cool concept, especially for power companies in areas where they get a lot of sun.
Watch the movie (below) to understand this… it’s explained pretty well there.
(If this doesn’t load on your computer for some reason, just click the refresh button on your browser, and that should fix it.)
The simple concept of making renewable energy cost-competitive with fossil fuel energy has driven eSolar to engineer a paradigm shift in CSP technology, providing a cost-effective and scalable solution.
eSolar builds an individual 33 MW power unit on 160 acres (64 hectares) and can scale up to 500 MW or larger capacity with multiple units.
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7 Responses to “ESolar’s Plans for PowerPlants: Electricity powered by water heated by the sun”
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Hey Kathleen!
I think you’re completely right about it being a “I can spend less on standard electricity” problem.
Do you know of anyone who offers financing of this kind on home solar installations? We’d love to know, and let everyone else know too…
Thanks!
Jonathan
http://www.GreenJoyment.com -
There’s one company that’s based in San Francisco that is offering a service close to what you describe — it’s called SunRun, and lets homeowners pay about one-half to one-third the upfront cost of buying a solar system, and then lock into a fixed electricity rate that is lower than the utilities. It’s like a power purchase agreement — you only pay for the power generated by the panels that you consume, and SunRun owns and maintains the system. Sounds pretty ideal to me…
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joel says:
To me it doesn’t make sense to basically rent solar panels. That’s what you’re describing. To me being energy independant is the key. We don’t need to pay someone else endlessly, when we can own our own power producing system. The real key here is stop being money hungry and truely save the planet by making solar systems affordable for the regular working stiffs. when that happens, you’re one step closer to actually making a difference. Until then, let’s keep pushing for change.
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i like your idea about generating solar energy using water. i also have been thinking of that.
please can you sand me a detailed explanation of your project and how i can be a part of it?
I really wanna be a part of it.
Thank you. -
Sayyuo J. M. Gargard says:
Please send me more info on this Technology; At night when there is no sun shining, how do I heat the water to generate steame? I still appreciate this esolar, maybe with further study the answer could be found. Thanks; Sayyuo
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sharidel says:
Homeowner: My house is located in an earthquake zone.
Agent: Sorry, but I can’t help you. I only sell no-fault insurance!
Here’s how I see it. It’s not an energy problem; it’s a financing problem. Like many people, I would switch to solar in a heartbeat if I had the $. Since it pays for itself, why not figure out a way to install solar with a small investment; then make payments comparable to the monthly power bill until it’s paid off?