News about Solar, Wind and alternative green power technologies

Alongside all of the other big ideas when it comes to using solar power in the world, there is the option of utilising solar thermal power. The race to find the very best way of using solar power continues, and this method in particular has many fans. It has some differences when compared to using photovoltaic power.

Solar thermal power uses the heat from direct sunlight. The old image that used to proliferate before the technical aspects of solar powers became better known, that of sticking a dish out in the desert somewhere and watching the sun literally burn energy into it, is not far from the truth when we talk about solar thermal power.

Rising fossil fuel prices (becoming so high recently that there was talk of some kind of stand-off between supplier and user) have made the search for a decent renewable energy source even more urgent. Solar thermal power plants have the edge over many other renewable sources due to the fact that they have a greater level of energy output. They also have attractive levels of costs when it comes to running them on a daily basis. On top of all of this is the very exciting benefit of having a power plant that is virtually pollution free.

There are a few large scale plants when it comes to solar thermal power. For example, there are plants existing or planned in places like Florida, California, Spain and Algeria. As it happens, Algeria is one of the world’s biggest oil exporters, but it plans to add more to its producing power by tapping into the solar thermal power market. The idea in Algeria is to add 6,000 megawatts of capacity through plants, and then hook up Europe through an underwater cabling system. The upshot of all of this is very clear. Algeria is making a big play for the pole position when it comes to solar thermal power production. To give you some perspective into the size of the Algeria project, the power that is generated from it is enough to power a country the size of Switzerland. That’s totally renewable power, by the way.

Finally, a company called ACCIONA energy have built what is widely felt to be the largest solar thermal energy power plant in the world.    The plant, called ‘Nevada Solar One’, and located in Nevada, took 16 months to build, and cost $250 million. An amazing feat indeed, and more proof, if it were ever needed, that solar thermal power is very