Google said it would invest $168 million into the Ivanpah solar thermal power plant being erected by BrightSource Energy.The Ivanpah plant, rated at 392 megawatts, is slated to be the first in a series of large solar thermal plants from BrightSource. The company has additional power contracts for 1,300 megawatts with Southern California Edison and 1,310 megawatts with Pacific Gas & Electric.
The technology underlying Ivanpah and many of the other new projects differs from conventional solar thermal power plants. At Ivanpah, fields of relatively flat, computer-controlled mirrors will focus the heat of the sun onto a water tank to create steam. The steam ultimately powers a turbine. The architecture, says BrightSource, can more economically and efficiently capture and transfer energy than the traditional systems that use parabolic mirrors to heat oil in tubes. BrightSource should know: It grew out of a parabolic company called Luz that built some of the most successful parabolic fields ever erected.
Google has invested $250 million in alternative power projects, including wind and solar farms.
Source: www.greentechmedia.com