Many plants attained record solar performance during summer 1997. The SEGS plants range in capacity from 13.8 to 80 MW, and they were constructed to meet Southern California Edison Company s periods of peak power demand. The SEGS plants use parabolic-trough solar collectors to capture the sun s energy and convert it to heat. In the SEGS design, the curved solar collectors focus sunlight onto a receiver pipe. Mechanical controls slowly rotate the collectors during the day, keeping them aimed at the sun as it travels across the sky.
Synthetic oil flowing through the receiver pipe serves as the heat transfer medium.
The heated oil is routed through a heat exchanger to generate steam that drives an electricity-producing turbine. With 354 MW of total capacity, the nine SEGS plants are the world's largest solar power facility. Many of the cost-reduction activities also improve performance of the plants. In the summer of 1997, KJC reported record power output for a single day 2,071,000 kWh enough to power more than 75,000 homes daily. SW Washington, DC 20585 Solar Forecasting for Operational Support of SEGS Plants .