Generating electricity when the sun isn't shining has long been the Achilles' heel of the solar power industry, but a new solar project in the high Nevada desert aims to solve the dilemma by becoming the nation's first commercial solar power plant to use salt storage technology.
The $900-million project is being built by Tonopah Solar Energy LLC, a unit of Santa Monica, Calif.-based SolarReserve LLC. The 110-MW concentrating solar powerplant will sit on 1,776 acres of federal land along the Crescent Dunes, about 13 miles northwest of Tonopah, Nev.