World’s Largest Solar Plant, SEGS

The Mojave Desert, located in the zone where southern California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona meet, contains some of the best available solar radiation in the U.S. It also contains the hottest location in North America – Death Valley. It’s no wonder the largest solar power plant in the world is located in the Mojave. Called Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS), it consists of nine solar power plants that have a combined capacity of 354 megawatts (MW), more than any other system of its kind.

Now, Mojave Solar Park is in the works with a completion date set for 2011. At that point, Mojave Solar Park is anticipated to cover nine square miles of desert and generate 553 MW of solar thermal power, far outdoing even SEGS. The capacity of 553 MW is equivalent to powering 400,000 homes.

Mojave Solar Park will run on solar thermal parabolic trough technology by Israel’s Solel Solar Systems, parent company to Solel-MSP-1, which entered a 25-year agreement with PG&E. The agreement is filed with the California Public Utilities Commission. Following its completion, Mojave Solar Park will deliver solar power to PG&E customers in northern and central California.

Posted on December 28th in Solar News by Dean.