This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic
newsletter. Arizona Utility to Buy Power from a 280-Megawatt
Solar Power Plant Arizona Public Service Company (APS) is
planning to draw power from a 280-megawatt concentrating solar
power (CSP) plant to be built near Gila Bend, Arizona, about 70
miles southwest of Phoenix. Called the Solana Generating System,
the new facility will be built by Abengoa Solar and is expected
to begin producing power in 2011. It will be among the largest
solar power plants in the world, producing enough power at full
capacity to serve 70,000 households, and it will also have the
ability to store energy, allowing power production to continue
into the evening. The facility will use miles of parabolic
trough-shaped mirrors to capture the sun's heat and focus it
upon a length of "absorber" tubing. A fluid passed through the
tubing collects the sun's heat, and the hot fluid is used to
boil water to steam, which then spins a turbine to produce
electricity. APS will buy all