POWER February 2011 - 9

2. Tower of power. From Oct. to Dec. 2010, U.S. Interior Secretary
Ken Salazar approved construction of nine solar energy projects on
federal lands. Among them was BrightSource's 370-MW Ivanpah Solar
Power Tower (shown in this artist's rendering). Courtesy: BrightSource
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plant will use mirror fields to focus solar energy on a tower receiver
near the center of the array. Steam from boilers in the tower drives
a turbine, which generates electricity. The power will be bought
by NV Energy, which signed a 25-year power purchase agreement
with Solar Reserve subsidiary Tonopah Solar a year ago.
Crescent Dunes wasn't the largest or most unique project approved
by the Department of the Interior (DOI) last year. Others were:
■ Oct. 5: The 709-MW Imperial Valley Solar Project in Imperial
County, Calif. (Tessera Solar of Texas), which will use Stirling
Energy System's SunCatcher technology and 28,360 solar
dishes; and the Chevron Lucerne Valley Solar Project (Chevron
Energy Solutions), in San Bernardino County, Calif., a 45-MW
photovoltaic (PV) solar project.
■ Oct. 7: The 370-MW Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System,
the first solar power tower approved. The project will be located
in San Bernardino County, Calif. (Figure 2).
■ Oct. 13: The 50-MW Silver State North Solar Project south of
Las Vegas, Nev. First Solar Inc.'s project is a PV plant that will
occupy about 600 acres of federal land.
■ Oct 20: The 663.5-MW Calico Solar project (Tessera Solar of
Texas), which will use SunCatcher solar dishes to produce
power in San Bernardino County, Calif.
■ Oct. 26: The 1,000-MW Blythe Solar Power project, Solar
Millennium's parabolic trough project planned for Riverside
County, Calif.
■ Nov. 7: The 250-MW Genesis Solar Project (NextEra Energy Resources),
which will use parabolic trough technology in Riverside
County, Calif.
■ Nov. 15: The 500-MW Armargosa Farm Road Solar Project (Solar
Millennium), which will use two 250-MW parabolic trough
" dry cooled " power plants with thermal energy storage.
Laos Inaugurates Major RevenueGenerating
Hydropower Plant
Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR), the tiny landlocked
country in Southeast Asia of just 6.3 million people, in December
inaugurated the 1,070-MW Nam Theun 2 Power Station, a
hydropower project in Khammouane Province. It was constructed
with financial aid from the World Bank and Asian Development
Bank. Ninety percent of the electricity generated by the project
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POWER February 2011

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