Solar thermal put to the test in Bakersfield

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Posted on Sat, Sep. 05, 2009

Solar thermal put to the test in Bakersfield

David Sneed
BAKERSFIELD — “Stow it,” Sam McIntosh said into a handheld radio.

An operator at the Kimberlina solar thermal plant near Bakersfield clicked on an electric motor, and a quarter-mile-long row of 10 mirrors began rotating upside down. Like a laser beam, the sunlight reflected by the mirrors swept across the bodies of a group of employees standing 50 feet away.

The flash of light was blinding even through sunglasses. Heat nearly hot enough to burn skin could be felt through a layer of clothing.

Just moments before, those mirrors had concentrated the sun’s energy on a water pipe perched 50 feet overhead. The mirrors along with lenses magnify the heat of the sun 50 times; the steam that forms turns turbines that produce 3 megawatts of electricity.

Experimental plant

Ausra’s Kimberlina plant is a miniature version of the solar thermal plant the company is planning to build on the Carrizo Plain. That plant will be nearly 60 times larger than the Kimberlina one and will be the largest such solar thermal plant in the world, said McIntosh, Ausra’s vice president of operations.

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