Quoted from rotordave:I’m always fascinated by the huge solar arrays you see on I-15 just over the California State Line.
It’s called the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility. All the mirrors reflect sunlight at a central collector (there are 3 of them) and this boils water to drive steam turbines to make electricity.
There are .... wait for it ... 173,000 mirrors. Imagine walking into an engineering shop and saying “hey, can you make me some mirrors?”
“Yeah, how many you need?”
“Ummm .... one hundred and seventy three thousand...”
“shit!”
Very clever. It makes enough power for 140,000 homes at peak time.
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Every time I drive by there I wonder about the manhours spent to keep the mirrors and collector clean in the middle of the desert...
