Page 2 >>
Editor's note: This article was originally posted on AOL Energy.
By Shifra Mincer
The intermittent nature of solar power has long been its most obvious weakness. What happens when the sun stops shining? People still need power.
One California-based solar company, BrightSource Energy, says it has developed a way to solve the problem. The company recently announced that it will be including its SolarPLUS thermal energy storage technology to several of its concentrated solar power (CSP) solar plants. The storage units will allow power from the sun to be stored for the evening when the sun is no longer shining but demand is up.
BrightSource Energy currently has three signed power purchase agreements with Southern California Edison for about 4 million MWh of electricity from seven CSP plants. The new contract would be for the same amount of power but from six solar plants, leaving one of the original seven unbuilt. Two of the CSP plants are scheduled to come online in 2015 and three are scheduled to come online in 2016 and 2017.
"With these agreements, we're demonstrating that power tower technology is not only advancing the solar thermal industry, but that utility-scale solar generation can be both cost effective and reliable," said BrightSource Energy President and CEO John Woolard in a statement.
Next page: Why politicians and engineers like it
Talk Back
