Hybrid Power Plant

A Florida utility is adding significant solar generating capacity to its natural gas-fired power plant. This coupling of technologies simultaneously addresses solar intermittency and peak-load issues (inefficiently firing up additional turbines when we all have our air conditioners on full blast). All this while reducing the carbon footprint of the facility. The solar technology is not photovoltaic, but instead is a central-receiver system, in which an array of reflectors concentrate solar energy onto an oil-filled thermal mass, whose heat is then transferred to water in a steam generator.