Could Solar Thermal such as the unique thermosolar power station in southern Spain shrug off cloudy days?… Well.. YES: energy stored when the sun shines lets it produce electricity even during the night. The Gemasolar station, up and running since last May 2012, stands out in the plains of Andalusia.
Since then there have been a few more like this one in the US….. at the Ivanpah solar thermal plant in California (neat Vegas), a 400 megawatt facility that uses mirrors to reflect sunlight onto energy towers instead of burning coal to make steam.
Concentrated solar power (also called concentrating solar power, concentrated solar thermal, and CSP) systems generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight onto a small area.
See how it works:
