The Latest News And Developments For Commercial Solar Panels
Uncover the latest news and developments for commercial solar panels as manufacturers continuously push the envelope to create high
efficiency commercial panels at lowering costs.
The History Of Commercial Panel Development
One of the first commercial panels to be released in the United States was manufactured by ESolar in Lancaster, California.
These commercial panels are found at the Sierra SunTower solar power plant.
Esolar utilizes computer software to align the thousands of tiny mirrors to concentrate the sun's heat and energy on top of a tower.
- At this point, water is pumped through the tower and boiled to steam which in turn drives a turbine producing about 5 megawatts of electricity.
ESolar's Commercial Panels Span Over 10 Acres Of Land
These commercial solar panels span over 10 acres of land and consist of more than 12,000 mirrors surrounding one of the plant's power towers.
- Each day the single tower generates up to 2.5 megawatts of power.
- In total, with two towers, 5 megawatts of power are generated and sold to Southern California Edison.
Continuous Innovations Are Being Made With Commercial Solar Power
Since implementation there has been several innovations to the commercial solar panels to improve efficiency, with the most prominent being the use of small mirrors for the heliostats.
ESolar plans to duplicate this set up with other power plants throughout the United States, making solar energy a little more widespread.
- So far, three more plants in California have been planned as well as some in New Mexico.
- Together they will generate an upwards of 465 megawatts of power.
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