The First Electric Generator of Its Kind
The Ivanpah solar power plant in the Mojave Desert officially opened Thursday February 13, 2014 after almost four years of construction, and is the first electric generator of its kind.
A field of mirrors at the Ivanpah power plant in California. Jim Wilson/The New York Times
“…focuses sunlight from 350,000 mirrors onto 2,200-ton boilers 339 feet in the air to make steam that drives turbines to produce electricity”
To imagine what this is, put yourself at the beach, you are 6 feet tall (or you’re standing on a beach chair), and you look as far as you can to the horizon; that should be about 4 miles. From this spot on the beach, 350,000 mirrors are spread over a distance farther than you can see (5 miles in all directions) and all those mirrors direct the sun’s rays onto the surface of a boiler that gets hot enough to produce steam which is used to drive a turbine to produce electricity.
That is cool!
It will take bold and imaginative ideas and, while some ideas may prove to be impractical, we will find ways to continue to create energy for the world’s consumers that can be sustained (without damaging the earth for the next 100 years).
Realgy has invested in photovoltaic (PV) solar generation where the sun light is converted into electricity within the solar panel.
Check out the NY Times article: “A Huge Solar Plant Opens, Facing Doubts About Its Future”
Researchers are generating power using viruses
This might sound weird but researchers at Berkeley Lab have developed a method to generate power using a virus.
The harmless M13 bacteriophage virus converts mechanical energy into electricity, and is the first generator to produce electricity by harnessing the piezoelectric properties of a biological material.
Testing the generator produced enough current to run a small liquid-crystal display. Image courtesy of Berkley Lab
This new technology will one day make it possible to charge your smartphone as you walk, thanks to a paper-thin generator on the sole of your shoe. Can you imagine all the other great uses for this type of generator.
Learn more about this amazing technology and even watch a video on how it works at the Berkeley Labs website