Google Invests $168MM in World's Largest Solar Power Tower Plant

That is such a smart design (using mirrors to focus sunlight onto one point rather than using lots of solar panels spread about). How long have scientists had this idea?

Has anyone come across a calculation on how this affects the local climate? Won't this system be sucking 390MW of energy out of the environment to convert to mechanical energy?<p>The effect must be noticeable. I get the same feeling about wind. If solar ever became large scale wouldn't we be directly countering global warming? And won't solar panels/mirrors be directly competing for the solar energy that wind uses?

There are a number of solar thermal plants in development now. It is worth noting that it is possible to store the energy for use in dark times by including storage tanks in the molten salt loop, though I don't see that in this plant's description and it isn't important until there is a significant solar contribution to the total energy production.

Original announcement: <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/investing-in-worlds-largest-solar-power.html" rel="nofollow">http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/investing-in-worlds-l...</a>