Kramer Junction
Posted by: 
Squirreleen
N 35° 00.769 W 117° 32.901
11S E 449969 N 3874602
Kramer Junction- 30-Megawatt solar thermal electric generating plant.
Waymark Code: WM3HQ1
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 04/08/2008
Views: 77
A huge field of parabolic collectors in the Mojave Desert on Hwy 395 near Kramer Junction...pretty much in the middle of nowhere (no offense meant to the nearby residents of Boron).
This facility is considered a "peaker" plant as it provides energy during peak use hours (daylight). Gas provides a supplemental source of power for cloudy peak-use days. This power plant is one of 5 nearby power plants built in the mid 1980s by
Solel (see their website). The total combined output of the plants is expected to be 165 MWs--33 MWs each. According to the website that's enough to displace 1 million barrels of oil, and it still has a good 15 years of operational life on it.
Although it's not an especially fair comparison, you could compare it to something like the decommissioned Humboldt Nuclear Power Plant in Eureka which had a 63 MW capacity and only functioned for 13 years (1963-1976), leaving a tank of spent fuel rods no one wants to touch.