page_title: Renewable energy in the United States
section_title: Concentrated solar power
hierarchical_section_title: Renewable energy in the United States / Renewable electricity sources / Solar power / Concentrated solar power
caption_attribution_description: Looking north towards the Ivanpah's eastern boiler tower.
context_page_description: According to preliminary data from the US Energy Information Administration, renewable energy accounted for about 11% of total primary energy consumption and about 17% of the domestically produced electricity in the United States in 2018.
  Hydroelectric power is currently the largest producer of renewable electricity in the country, generating around 6.5% of the nation's total electricity in 2016 as well as 45.71% of the total renewable electricity generation.
  The United States is the fourth largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world after China, Canada and Brazil.
  The next largest share of renewable power was provided by wind power at 5.55% of total power production, amounting to 226.5 terawatt-hours during 2016. By January 2017, the United States nameplate generating capacity for wind power was 82,183 megawatts. Texas remained firmly established as the leader in wind power deployment, followed by Iowa and Oklahoma as of year end 2016.
  Solar power provides a growing share of electricity in the country, with over 50 GW of installed capacity generating about 1.3% of the country's total electricity supply in 2017, up from 0.9% the previous year.
context_section_description: At the end of 2016 there were 1.76 GW total installed capacity of solar thermal power across the United States.
  Solar thermal power is generally utility-scale.
  Prior to 2012, in six southwestern states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah) the US Bureau of Land Management owned nearly 98 million acres (400,000 km²) (an area larger than the state of Montana) that was open to proposals for solar power installations. 
  To streamline consideration of applications, the BLM produced a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). 
  By the subsequent Record of Decision in October 2012, the BLM withdrew 78% of its land from possible solar development, leaving 19 million acres (77,000 km²) still open to applications for solar installations, an area nearly as large as South Carolina. Of the area left open to solar proposals, the BLM has identified 285 thousand acres in 17 highly favorable areas it calls Solar Energy Zones.
  Solar thermal power plants designed for solar-only generation are well matched to summer noon peak loads in prosperous areas with significant cooling demands, such as the south-western United States. 
  Using thermal energy storage systems, solar thermal operating periods can even be extended to meet base-load needs.
  A 2013 study by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory concluded that utility-scale solar power plants directly disturb an average of 2.7 to 2.9 acres per gigawatt-hour/year, and use from 3.5 to 3.8 acres per gW-hr/year for the entire sites. 
  According to a 2009 study, this intensity of land use is less than that of the country's average power plant using surface-mined coal. Some of the land in the eastern portion of the Mojave Desert is to be preserved, but the solar industry is more interested in areas of the western desert, "where the sun burns hotter and there is easier access to transmission lines".
  Some of the largest solar thermal power plants in the United States are in the south-west of the country, especially in the Mojave Desert.
  Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) is the name given to nine solar power plants in the Mojave Desert commissioned between 1984 and 1991.
  The installation uses parabolic trough solar thermal technology along with natural gas to generate electricity. 
  The facility has a total of 400,000 mirrors and covers 1,000 acres (4 km²).
  The plants have a total generating capacity of 354 MW.
  Nevada Solar One generates 64MW of power and in Boulder City, Nevada, and was built by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and Solargenix Energy. Nevada Solar One started producing electricity in June 2007.
  Nevada Solar One uses parabolic troughs as thermal solar concentrators, heating tubes of liquid which act as solar receivers. These solar receivers are specially coated tubes made of glass and steel.  About 19,300 of these 4 metre long tubes are used in the newly built power plant. Nevada Solar One also uses a technology that collects extra heat by putting it into phase-changing molten salts.  This energy can then be drawn on at night.
  The Ivanpah Solar Power Facility is a 392 megawatt (MW) solar power facility which is located in south-eastern California. The facility formally opened on February 13, 2014.
  The Solana Generating Station is a 280 MW solar power plant which is near Gila Bend, Arizona, about 70 miles (110 km) southwest of Phoenix. The 250MW Mojave Solar Project is located near Barstow, California. The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project is a 110 megawatt (MW) solar thermal power project near Tonopah, about 190 miles (310 km) northwest of Las Vegas.
caption: Looking north towards the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility's eastern boiler tower from Interstate 15 in California.
exif: {}