Solar One, which went online in June, is the first solar thermal power plant built in 16 years and produces 64 megawatts of electricity during the peak midday hours, enough to power 14, 000 Nevada homes.
He dreams of building gigawatt-size plants, of shipping solar thermal power to the cloudy Northeast and of using molten salt to store energy so thermal plants can power homes at night. (Nevada Solar One is only for daytime peak loads.) He envisions mirrors in space that can soak up sunlight 24 hours a day.