Nevada Solar One Project + Nevada Fish and Wildlife

Even though we were not able to get a tour of the Nevada Solar One Project it was really cool to be able to see it in person. I had barely any knowledge on parabolic solar mirrors and have definitely never seen one it person. Parabolic mirrors are another way to use solar to produce energy. Instead of using solar panels the mirrors focus the suns rays on to a small tube running across the mirror. This pipe is filled with a certain oil and the oil is run into the power station where it heats up water turning it to steam. This steam then turns a turbine producing energy. The oil not only holds the heat better than water it also prevents the pipes from eroding. It is also pretty efficient it has a capacity of 75 megawatts and runs at about 64. Just like everything that is man made there is a downside. The land that the solar concentrators are built on is encroaching on desert tortoise habitat and they are endangered but Nevada has a lot of habitat for them so no negative impacts have been noticed.

The second part of the day was talking to Amy from the Nevada Fish and Wildlife Service. This was a nice talk be cause we actually got to go for a nice stroll up Spring Mountain. She works at the desert wildlife refuge which is 1.6 million acres and is located just north of Las Vegas. It was interesting to learn that since the mountain range was formed rather quickly there a numerous endemic species which have been isolated and are beginning to evolve. The majority of the endemic species are plants but there are 128 variations of endemic butterflies and the largest endemic species is a chipmunk. She also talked about the environmental problems with building solar farms in the desert, they destroy virgin Mojave soil and impede on desert tortoise land. This is interesting because to the large majority of people this land is just barren waste land but it is so fragile and important that disturbing it just a little bit can cause huge problems in the ecosystem.

Picture Citations:

"Parabolic Mirror." Solar and Renewable Energy Products. Web. 2011.

http://www.ecomall.com/biz/1solarfarm.jpg

"Spring Mountain." Anthony Sarnoski. 2011.