300,000 homes to get solar electricity after federal approval granted

Working on the Parabolic Reflectors for the SOLAR THERMAL PLANT

Good news from California and for Solar Thermal Plant (as opposed to solar PV panels). These reflectors concentrate light onto tubes filled with a heat transfer medium. This in turn is stored in insulated tanks and used over a 24hour period to power turbines to generate electricity - thus power at night!. Big in Spain and perfected by the Germans, this is an international project. See below from their press release.

Solar Trust of America, LLC today announced that its project development subsidiary, Solar Millennium, LLC, has secured a Record of Decision (ROD) from the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approving the Blythe Solar Power Plant’s Right of Way Grant. The ROD is the final regulatory milestone in the federal permitting process and it paves the way for Solar Millennium, LLC to build and operate its Blythe Solar Power Project, which will be the largest solar power facility in the world.

Located in Riverside County, California, the Blythe solar power facility, will be the first parabolic trough solar facility approved on U.S. public land. It will consist of four 250 MW plants that together will deliver 1,000 MW of nominal generating capacity, or enough electricity to annually power more than 300,000 single-family homes. Upon completion the Blythe facility will increase the solar electricity production capacity of the U.S. by more than double, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Energy.