Spain Runs Europe's First Commercial Solar Plant

Michelle Yazvac

3/23/11

Blog #9

Household electricity is being made by a company in Seville, Spain. It is called concentrated thermal energy which takes heat from the sun and heats up steam turbine generators. What's nice about this is there are no greenhouse gases from this form of heating. Mirrors take beams from the sun and reflect them to cause this heating. This plant is titled PS-10 and it is an 11-megawatt electric power plant that delivers energy to around 6,000 homes. This plant has been made operating since 2006 and continues to grow and expand. More construction is going on for the growth to operate on 300-megawatt. Fernandez, the engineer to operates the plant says that in 2013 all solar platforms will stand and with creating 300-megawatts, this energy could operate around 230,000 homes, which is about the size of the city Seville. There are a total of 624 solar panels reflecting the sun that powers this plant.
Fernandez's company is already setting up plants in Morocco and Algeria, and is in talking about building some more in California, Nevada and New Mexico. The total cost of this plant when completed is said to total around one and a half billion dollars. The government of Spain and the EU generously helped with this project however, Fernandez claims that the technology is getting cheaper.

It is reassuring to know that projects like this are going on around the world. The initiative to use renewable energy for the benefit of our environment is starting to become well accepted. It is also great to know that the government of Spain and the EU put in a major contribution towards this project. It shows their concern for the environment and how in the long run, their decision will be the best made. Hopefully soon plants such as this will be posted in the U.S. It is time for a new change in the way we use energy. Sooner than later is the ultimate goal.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13826548