First U.S. solar towers produce home electricity

Sun light is free, only collecting it costs money.
This is a good thing.
Many sunny places around the world have energy problems. They could have electricity without huge distribution networks. Relatively small scale projects are also beautiful for the people who don't have electricity.
What could be more beautiful than to boil water in your home without having to hunt for fuel, the same fuel your neighbors also hunt.

If we focus on increasing efficiency in using electric power and then use the time that buys us to deploy solar thermal we can avoid adding even one more disasterous coal plant. Solar thermal is much more economically feasible than the mythical "Clean Coal".

As long as they only make these systems too large for individual homes or apartment complexes. I just don't know what I would do without my monthly electric bill from my friendly power company and all their little tips how to scrunch a $3.00 savings each month.

Progress good .

Free power from the sun how will that make anyone money?

Simply Awesome !!

I really doubt the moisture questions will be a problem. As has been pointed out it would most likely just evaporate, rise up and fall somewhere else. And I'm also that was considered by the engineers that designed the thing. Once we start using acres or even square miles of desert, the result would be to send the rain somewhere it would be more helpful. Nothing wrong with that. Folks living on the outskirts of the desert would probably appreciate it.

Wonder what the projected output would be per acre? Retiring our coal fired plants sounds like a good lick to me.

Yay! We are finally waking up to the fact that we need to do something about our irresponsible energy production practices to ensure the survival of our planet. This is great news!

Futures so bright!

awesome!

That's an extremely good point. How could a bunch of these mirror-tower systems in bulk affect the Earth's Water Cycle indeed... in case the honorable T. Boone Pickens might decide to fill a desert with thousands of them. Sometimes in the summer a summer shower will drop a temporary rainfall and then move on. I believe in that event that the rain falling into these superheated rays and very much heated mirrors BY THE ACRE would be instantly evaporated.

I could see a slight possibility of the rising fast moisture cloud perhaps spawning a desert water funnel or creating somehow a super rain cloud. Another possibility especially in the intense desert sunlight would be that the rising moisture would have a collective magnifying glass effect and roast something or somebody on the ground... or even magnify the sunlight hitting the mirrors and cause a warp of the mirrors.

But I'm sure the experts have considered all these things. Go back to sleep. Everything's under control. No snail darters will die. On the other hand it might make a lot of rainbows out in the desert too!

I didn't even know one of these was being built, and in my own backyard at that. Good times. I wonder though, how many of these things can go up before it starts messing with our water supply.

great start. let see if we can get wind turbines and solar towers to not create a new blight on land

these things remind me of an action movie i saw where they were destroying toxic waste by reflecting mirrors to heat it.

Ilove it. Sounds like a great hope for the development of clean alternative energy and self sufficiency.

Ha ! Solar is cool, or hot. Its good .:p

I'm happy for California. Many places in the world this wouldn't work so great but CA, yep. No matter how good it works they'd never do it in Virginia. It won't kill enough birds and bats.