ESolar's First Solar Power Tower Operational!

[slowblues3x5]

Make more videos!

[19sasukelover]

Did Hank quit this channel

[aaronl22]

We need an Eco Geek App!

So we can read our Eco news on the go :D

Would be so greatful if you would do this, as i'm sure all the other readers would too.

[imamadmad1]

please upload more vids. these r very good and i want 2 c more!!!!

[readergirl1028]

HAAAAANNNNKKKKK. Post something on this channel.

[46kalas]

shit.... spanish solar tower is the best.Abengoa is better than esolar..solucar produced 20 mw....esolar only 5mw

[SonOfTerra92]

Brains for the Earth ....

[Allante715]

Solar as a horrible capacity factor. What does this mean? Basically you are only going to reach 5MW 20 percent of the time. Nuclear on the other hand has a 90 percent capacity factor.

[ThomasTheTank142]

hahahaha silly hank. i think you mean mirror not meer and turbine but turban.

[PoppaTom1948]

Great job bubba!! Keep up the great work and thanks for working so hard to keep us informed!

[randommagnum]

You're announcer personality is annoying as hell. But onto more important matters...

Environmentalists are the biggest obstacle to the construction of solar power systems being put all over the desert. They want to preserve the desert ecosystem, tortoise migration paths, etc. Ironic, isn't it?

[proverb311031]

stop solar sprawl, build up not out, we need to build 5 mile high towers, so that we do not waste millions of acres of land!

[genziana03]

what a pity. could not get one word of what you said. too fast talking...

Are you a DJ or something?

[anillingutla]

amazing. i managed to understand every of the word spoken and digest!! after listening to this video. amazing clarity on the subject. i might seek you advice as iam planning for a 1-2MW plant soon.

[E11eAndRi55a]

I miss ecogeek videos. :(

[TheMattieBoosh]

I LOVE the irony that in this video you see an ELECTRIC guitar where we would usually see the accoustic ... xD or maybe it was intentional ... In which case Hank you are a genius

[CountCasper]

o mg ssoo have to do this :)

[Bettushco]

Please help me hank!

I use final cut express and iMovie.

How do you export your videos to look soooo good?!

[Tattas999]

@Bettushco It's not about the editing software, the quality is good because he uses a good camera and the lighting is good.

[FanofB20]

Saw a great show about this solar power station on World's Toughest Fixes on the NatGeo channel. I just looked and it is showing again TOMORROW. Fascinating stuff!

[boricuacookie]

I freaking hate this jumpy editing every single person on youtube is using.... especialy when they over do it...

[ShinyJaker]

5th of October 2009 isn't even a real date, and nor will it ever be lol

[neopolitan1177]

lol october lol

:)

[tripthe1]

Hank, who is going to clean all of those mirrors???

You get FIVE stars for the guitar on your wall.

[InformationOverload]

any of the millions of unemployed people in California.

[tripthe1]

Those jerks are gonna say that the company isn't paying them enough. Then all the jobs will go to immigrants.

[InformationOverload]

this is true. But they actually have a machine that cleans the mirrors.

[lessasgirls]

but don't they need water and in places like Mexico and California, that is a diminishing resource.

[charlottepoet]

i wish solar panels for your home were cheaper! i'd be all over that :)

but great to see what companies are doing

[kneidhamer]

That picture frame behind your head, does it just have the stock photos in it and not your pictures? I know, totally not what this vlog is about, but it distracted me.

[eskimopie155]

i like the use of solar technology and think that solar will be a very dominant source of energy in the future. i was wondering how much land do the mirrors for the power towers take up? if we covered the same amount of land in solar cells, would we generate more or less energy?

[OverUnityNow1]

We need simple energy for homes, this solar station will produce 2.5kw for 8-10 hours.

This would keep food cold for days when the power goes out, using solar energy to recharge the battery pack.

[calvintennant]

October = August?

[mawaFUKA6005]

I read somewhere that the solar energy radiation from the sahara dessert is 15times more energy then the world consumes.

[fightthepowerman]

I'm not sure if the environment is the biggest of sub-Saharan Africa's worries

[urticket]

i like this idea! i would love to go there and take a pic of that plant! =]

[Musiclovesme25]

Wow. I don't know much about solar power, so this was a really enlightening video. Using mirrors to heat up a boiler to create steam power!?

Totally awesome. Thanks, Hank!

-Rae

[TheKaiChronicles]

Very interesting.

[Kekeoki]

/hi5 Ive been waiting for some more solar power to come to CA

WE HAVE SO MUCH BLANK OPEN SPACE!

[RandomMelodiousTune]

sweet!

[liz768]

this isn't the first is it? what about Barstow CA plant? constructed in the 1980s but then rebuilt in the 90s, operational between 1996 and 1999. (Had to talk about power towers in an exam so had to know when they were first around) and admittedly looking at some early pics looks just like they have just had a mirror amnesty.

O+M costs of this scheme must be huge!

Hehe, they should combine the use of geothermal aquifers and solar like this into one huuuge plant.. too expensive?

[PhoenixDown11]

I like that idea of combining geothermal aquifers with solar. Basically, energy generation usually just boils down to, heat! But geothermal is really expensive, the only way to bring costs down would be to innovate the technology in which incorporates it, or the catch 22 of just making a bunch of em'. (I also recently write a paper on energy generation.)

[liz768]

yeh, definate catch 22 there. I should put it to my city- which utilises a geothermal aquifer 2 km deep- to build solar panals on top too. Of the two, I prefer solar as I don't like the idea of mining heat, as surely the water down there is finite

[Starlysh]

Star Trek used one of those Aptera super-sweet little cars in one of its scenes (that happened to be working on one day). Sadly, I don't think it was visible. But it was a cute car.

And that's cool about the ESolar power tower. Yay for solar energy. That is a lot of mirrors; I wonder if it would still function if there were a sand storm and a stone cracked one. Or something.

[ydoiwatchthese]

LMFAO YOU SAID OCTOBER!!!

I think you mean August.

[FujiokaDotCom]

October 5th 2009? wow iv only got 5days till my play im not ready yet :P

[Rlh1994]

but surely to make the mirrors and steam turbines, would give emissions?

[BaiiPwnsAll]

well yeah, obviously, but once their in use they stop creating the emissions, where as in other plants, after their made they continue giving off emissions...

[Rlh1994]

But how to make them when that is all we have, especially heating the mirrors to shape, that takes a lot of energy and normally can only be made with fossil fuels

[BaiiPwnsAll]

true, but it releases the same amount of emissions to make other components in coal power plants and they continue releasing the carbon, wear as after the mirrors are made, they STOP creating emissions. see? its a greener alternative. plus they can use the power the mirrors create to make MORE mirrors instead of using fossil fuels.

[Rlh1994]

august...i thought i missed like 2 months of school

[katiezellner]

awesome

[fallofautumndistro]

Good job on slowing down the speech so everyone can keep up. And thanks for the info. Sounds like a great project.

[saylerz21]

October 5th Hank? YOU HAVE A TIME MACHINE??? SCREW SOLAR POWER! HANK HAS A TIME MACHINE!

no but really, thats pretty cool

[knackeredwriter]

did he say wednesday OCTOBER 5th, 2009?

[WickedFabala]

yes indeed

[skelepieow]

Hank, do you have a sore throat or something? Your voice sounds scratchy in some parts. Might I recommend tea and honey?

[chubawunkin]

Yes, any watts of power not from fossil fuels is an improvement, but no these towers are not yet "cheap" enough to pay for themselves...The next step is to drive the cost down and if you can't improve the efficiency of the process by much than we have a problem.

[pyro5050]

you say "just a few hours ago, on wednesday october 5th" :) we know what you mean... :) sexy towers! we need to see more of these, Solar power sexy tower!

[AdmiralGreenscreen]

Every tiem I hear about solar plants I remember I need to learn how they work. one day...

[DrQuijano]

SAhame on you Hank. No Green Screen.

[AdmiralGreenscreen]

why not? I Like Green Screen.

Just kidding, I know what you meant.

[Futuredudeman]

This is a whole lot more interesting than I was expecting it to be. @_@

[DukeofYar]

Solar Power Tower. I love that phrase! Rolls off the tongue so easily!

[UnculturedProject]

I like solar tower tech - but it uses a lot of land. And often these open spaces are new US military bases. And the US Airforce has already said no to construction of such facilities near their land as it interferes with their stealth fighter aircraft :-(

[jackeyramone]

NOO green screen :(

[thefish727]

i used to live in lancaster!!!

[DontMindManda]

October 5th?

[1DRock37167]

Its a start!

[ciccarello]

=( bring of some in florida

[clawedfish]

so whats the acreage for one of these 5mw plants?

[x3brokenwinterx3]

10 points for solar power!!

[Tardis910]

I'm excited to see more and more companies using green tech. Thanks for sharing your knowledge Hank!

[GinoftheWind]

Solar is by far my favorite source of energy. However, I do have a problem. People go SOLAR SOLAR SOLAR, which is great, because solar rocks. <3 However, it is in fact only an efficient power source for less than 12 hours/day. As fossil fuel plants can't be just "turned on" for night fall (it takes time to start-up/cool), they will still be in a maximal use during the day until we can find effective energy storing. Why isn't more attn being focused on that issue?

[Starlysh]

I thought solar panels stored enough solar energy throughout the day that it'd last all night.

I wonder how it would work on the east coast though, during the summer when it could be cloudy for days.

[DudeWheresMyMind]

Why does it seem that most all the car companies with cars that use radical new energy decide to make them odd-looking? That doesn't really sell the cars well.

[CoolJohnDog]

I love EcoGeek.

[cutie6325]

pretty amazing concept, i hope more a built!!

[tsully87]

You are from the future. I wish I was from the future.

[liz768]

why?

[allisonwonderrand]

I assume that by "October Fifth," you mean "August Fifth."

Otherwise, great. Such a cool idea.

[smilenose]

solar power tower might be the funnest thing to say, like ever

and where did the green screen go?

[murphychick101]

what happened to the green screeeeen!!!

[falloutxgirl23]

um...do you mean August?

[Mathematician2]

Yes, I think he did.

Very interesting science, nevertheless.

[pineapplemicrophone]

its kinda like AUSRA

[bmed19]

itd be a bitch cleaning all those mirrors, and not to mention resource intensive

[lamfrazier]

Solar Power FTW!!!!!!!!

[drummingturtle]

Its a start, but it is a shame that this technology isn't ordinary. It'ssad that any green energy sorce isn't a common household item.

[lindsaylou04]

I love it when we harness the power of the sun! It's what the plants (ya know, flowers) do-- why shouldn't we?

[DistinctiveBlend]

because it doesn't give us enough energy. If you like the idea of harnessing the sun then look into fusion (not fission) by using fusion we create our own micro suns and it's clean.

[BartenderMix]

though we dont have emissions from fusion, it does take a lot of energy and a lot of heat( we dont have that container yet) so even though its cleaner it still generates heat.

[DistinctiveBlend]

Oh I know we haven't sorted it out yet but we have two approaches for fusion now that I'm aware of and then there's always He3.

I don't think solar plants are a good idea because on their limited output...it would be better if each house had it's own solar panel and we focus in on more powerful plants.

[BartenderMix]

another person thought of a more efficient form of energy

[DistinctiveBlend]

who and what?

[BartenderMix]

secret

[thetreeorthebear]

Well that's useful.

[Amyhere1014]

october?! LMAO!! ur about 2 months off =P

[JanksterProductions]

That's awesome! And I love the ending.

[bodaidan]

24000!

[ReikoSpazz]

Yes! Lets make the planet a huge mirror ball!

Seriously, interesting news. I'm all for green tech, but I'm wondering what the trade off would be for those locations.

Either way, looking cool.

Nice catchphrase/tag line at the end.

*~t3h C.

[Silver1226]

I kind of want to hear you say solar power tower five times fast now

[himitsusj]

"Brains for the earth"...I dig it.

Anyways, hoorah solar power! It's especially useful in places like Southern California and such where it hardly ever rains or even gets overcast...though up here in Northern California there's good uses for it too.

Hooray green tech!

[RedVolly]

Yay!! Great overview! Thanks Hank!

New Mexico!!! wooo

[crimsong19]

Sweet news, Hank!

[lindseylovegood]

Hey Hank! I was watching the History Channel the other day and they did a show about the world's largest laser and how its function is to create nuclear fusion. Apparently they do the big test in 2010. The only catch is if that if something went wrong the whole world would go POOF. I would love to hear your opinion about it!

[PinkDumbledore]

This is wonderful!

But don't these cover a lot of ground? I can see how a greedy solar company could cut down forests in attempts to earn more money.

But perhaps the benefits of solar power outweigh that drawback... perhaps.

[staticbb]

To match your typical coal and nuclear power plant. They would have to build about 11 of those things.

[sneakerset]

eSolar's operation at Sierra Hwy. and Ave. G in north Lancaster,Ca. required 20 acres of flat vacant land. The output of the plant(5 meg/watts) is sold to SoCalEdison. This design is modular allowing for more efficient use of the required land parcel...and incorporates smaller mirrors(easier to manufacture,transport,and set up). I believe that the cooling water is diverted from nearby waste reclamation pools(not sure on that).

[cookie4monster4]

That's exciting! This gives me hope that this is a small step in something great.

[REMsleeper428]

I wish I could afford an Aptera vehicle...

[ickykid94]

I hope that we eventually eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels. This is one step closer on an extremely long path.

[commanderkool868]

you said october in the beginning its august fyi

[shadowslave4]

Yay!!! Happy!

[richard991199]

I really don't think this is the first solar tower in the USA. Many years ago there was and is still there a solar tower called Solar One that is in Barstow, Ca . Last I herd it was now owned by a Japan Company.

[liz768]

ah, I was trying to research that. It open in the 80s but was mainly used in the mid 1990s- is it still going?

[vacheviolette]

Can't wait to see this take off

[KronksSpinachPuffs]

I remember seeing a TV documentary about the solar tower in Spain (at least, I think it was Spain) and I remember being very impressed with the ideas behind it. I hope more of these start to pop up (not that they'd be useful in rainy Scotland - it's wind power all the way up here!).

[RamblingandRanting]

I agree that this is a good idea! especially out here in arizona, but recently theres been a lot of controversy on the chemicals and massive water usage that solar panels take to make. have they addressed that?

[RubberDiBung]

This is a solar thermal power plant, not photovoltaic. Solar thermal is much easier to build, and you don't need large amounts of semiconductor grade silicon and rare metals.

[TheVanessaRose]

Well, solar power towers don't require solar panels so that wouldn't really be the issue.

However, as far as solar panels go--my dad (who works for APS) told me that the main issue they encountered was cost efficiency--it took somewhere around $2 million for them to put only ONE solar panel out at the Saguaro power plant. That's apparently close to a four to one cost over one of their regular units.

I wonder how much it cost to build the solar power tower? I could find any figures on it.

[RamblingandRanting]

Thank you! That clears it up

[InformationOverload]

there are no Photovoltaic solar panels being used. They appear to be mirrors.

[ShikoEYV]

YAY! I love hearing about these things happening, it kinda gives me hope that *maybe* we'll be able to become 100% fossil-feul free someday.

[RubberDiBung]

These solar thermal collectors are really the way to go. The technology is much simpler and cheaper than photovoltaics. But we need more of them ... many more ... considering that an average nuclear power plant produces 200 times the power of this small scale solar power plant ...

[Desrathedemon]

Brains for the earth!

[ZenityChenity]

Awesome! As long as no large forests get cut down to build them, this makes me happy :)

[InformationOverload]

I agree, but dont worry, this was designed for the desert. No trees were harmed in the making of this power plant. In fact, they had to build around some Joshua trees and were not allowed to remove the trees.

[ZenityChenity]

Well, then. Now I'm happy :)

Thanks for the information XD

[tfritz92]

its cool

[InformationOverload]

no, its really more hot than cool.

[tfritz92]

good point

[TheVanessaRose]

I really hope that they put some of these power plants out here in Arizona! I think my state is a perfect candidate for solar power towers.

I see that they have plans to set up more in California and New Mexico--does anyone think they might expand sometime soon to other states like Arizona or Utah?

[christopherawesome]

There really need to be more of these

[GirlScoutGaBi]

brains for the earth...i really like the sound of that!

[sgprailfan]

A great and informative video!

But I do miss the green screen...

[dietdrpep666]

October? It's August. :P

[Dancingchickenmovies]

awesome stuff

[KennilworthyWhisp]

sweeeet! :D

[LAshlieH]

This is pretty cool stuff.

[OMGEEAWESOME]

this is awesome =D i feel so in the know right now

[whitefluffyhat]

Solar Power Tower!

I like saying it over and over. Solar Power Tower Solar Power Tower Solar Power Tower...it's like a song.

[mynameisyibble]

This is exciting! :DDD

[hego19]

So when are you gonna come to ireland?

[Quinklong]

No green screen? Aww...