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At the Nevada Solar One parabolic trough power plant, hydraulic actuator devices, designed and built by Parker Hannifin, rotate and tilt the solar collector assemblies (curved mirrored surfaces) as they track the sun's motion each day through the desert sky. The actuators also control minor adjustments to the position of the arrays to compensate for the effects of wind pressure, as well as locking them for safe storage against high wind and dust storms.
Located in Boulder City, about 25 miles south of Las Vegas, Nevada Solar One is a 64 MW solar thermal plant and ranks as the world's third largest solar energy field. Spanning 300 acres, this is the first large solar plant of this kind to be built in the United States in over 15 years. It will generate approximately 129 million kilowatt hours of solar electricity annually.
Acciona Solar Power (ASP), a unit of Spain's Acciona Group, selected Parker to develop the solar panels' motion control system. The amount of solar electricity Solar One will produce illustrates the potential for more parabolic trough systems in the southwestern United States.
Parabolic trough systems use a different technology than the photovoltaic solar panels common on rooftops. Parabolic trough power plants use concentrated sunlight, in place of fossil fuels, to provide the necessary thermal energy to drive a conventional power plant. Curved mirrored surfaces, which are parabolic shaped, concentrate the sun's heat on a receiver tube, or pipe, located at the focus of the mirrors. A heat transfer fluid (usually a synthetic or mineral oil) passes through the receiver tube to achieve temperatures as high as 700 F. This fluid is used to produce steam/vapor that drives a conventional turbine/generator system to produce electricity.
To capture maximum sun exposure, the solar collector assemblies at Solar One track the sun throughout the day. Positioning...