Posted on 12/27/2007 8:33:08 PM PST by redrunner
MMA Renewable Ventures and SunPower Corp. finish construction of the 14-megawatt Nellis Air Force Base project. by: Jennifer Kho Bullet ArrowDecember 17, 2007
The U.S. Air Force said Monday that the largest solar-electric system in North America, a 14-megawatt installation at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, is up and running.
The project is expected to generate more than 30 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, supplying approximately 25 percent of the electricity used at the base.
That's far more electricity than is being churned out by the largest corporate installation so far, a 1.6-megawatt photovoltaic project that Google installed earlier this year (see Google Solar, in Pictures).
But it falls short of the 64 megawatts being generated by Nevada Solar One, a solar-thermal project in Nevada built by Acciona Solar Power. Instead of using sunlight to make electricity, like photovoltaic solar technologies, solar-thermal projects use the sun's heat.
The Air Force made the announcement at a ceremony Monday jointly with the Nevada Power Co., as well as with MMA Renewable Ventures, which financed the project and will operate it, and SunPower Corp., which designed and built the plant.
MMA Renewable Ventures, a subsidiary of Municipal Mortgage & Equity or MuniMae (NYSE: MMA), pays the upfront costs of commercial solar projects in exchange for a long-term agreement from customers to buy the power. The company raised an undisclosed amount of financing from Citi, Allstate and John Hancock Financial Services for the Nellis project in October.
In a written statement, Air Force Assistant Secretary William Anderson said the Nellis project is the first of many steps toward bringing more renewable energy to the military branch, which is the largest energy consumer in the federal government.
The new system also helps make Nevada the No. 1 state in solar generation per capita, said Michael Yackira, CEO of Sierra Pacific Resources, Nevada Power's parent company.
Just look at how minimally this eco-friendly power station impacts the local plant and animal life. Why, you can barely tell that it’s there, its footprint is so small! Would that more people could live in a way that harmonizes with nature so beautifully and seamlessly!
/falls out of chair
Nevada Solar One - 300 acres of mirrors and hot oil.
I you hadn’t pointed out that they were there, I wouldn’t have even noticed the solar panels.
Just think of all the windex they are going to need too...
“300 acres of mirrors and hot oil.”
I knew a woman like that in another life.
Thanks for the laugh..... gotta love the air force.
I sincerely hope this did not come out of the defense budget.
I don’t think any windex will be needed, it rains just after every dust storm there. That’s why they call it the Nevada “desert,” after all.
What was theprice tag?
ping
14MW? So don’t run the microwave and the hair dryer at the same time, I guess.
Been There!!!!!
Awesome:)
In 2003 The Fort Calhoun Station nuclear power plant put out 3,504,569,000 kilowatt-hours of electricty. That's 117x more power.
And Fort Calhoun Station is the smallest nuclear power plant in the nation.
So if the smallest nuclear power plant in the nation puts out 117x more power than the largest solar plant, the only question is why we are wasting our time with solar energy?
FYI the largest nuclear power plant Palo Verde put out a whopping 28,581,053,000 Kilowatt hours of electricity which is 953x as much as this useless solar farm.
Shhhssh. You're not supposed to ask that.
Buried in the fine print is this:
Occupying 140 acres of land leased from the Air Force at the western edge of the base, this ground-mounted solar system will employ an advanced tracking system, designed and deployed by PowerLight, to follow the sun.Approximately 70,000 solar panels and the patented PowerLight PowerTracker(R) will capture up to 30 percent more energy than an equivalent ground-mounted fixed-tilt system. Rated at approximately 15 megawatts (MW), the array will generate the power of a rooftop solar system with a rating of approximately 18 MW. The energy generated will support the more than 12,000 military and civilians at Nellis who are responsible for Air Force advanced combat training, tactics development and operational testing.
MMA Renewable Ventures will finance, own and operate the landmark system and sell the power to Nellis under the terms of a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).
I hope a plane doesn’t fly too close to it. Pooofff!
Oh quit making sense. You might make a liberal’s head explode.
>>I hope a plane doesn’t fly too close to it.
There is one somewhere around Edwards AFB (northeast of Los Angeles) that would get your attention (even at 33,000 ft) if you passed it at the right time of day i.e. in a direct line between it and the sun).
How many Watts generated when the sun goes down?
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