By Mark Brodie | KJZZ
If you ever wanted to see one of the world’s largest solar plants, take a trip out to the Arizona desert. KJZZ’s Steve Shadley just took a tour of Arizona Public Service’s new Solana plant and filled us in on his experience and how the Solana plant unique from other solar facilities around the world.
“Currently, the big challenge for solar power producers is storing electricity. With traditional photovoltaic solar panels that have been used for decades now, once the power is produced it immediately goes to the grid,” Shadley said.
Shadley interviewed Brad Albert, a resource manager with APS. Albert said Solana in Arizona is the first solar plant that uses a mixture of salt and water to store electricity for peak demand periods like after 5 p.m. when a lot of people get home from work and turn down the air conditioners on a hot day.
