(dramatic music)

(calm music)

[Narrator] We're here

at the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project

just outside Tonopah, Nevada.

This is really the first commercial-scale facility

utilizing this technology.

[Narrator] It's a solar power plant with the capability

of storing energy in the form of molten salt.

[Kevin] Most conventional renewable energy projects,

wind or solar, struggle with intermittency issues,

so you get variations throughout the day.

They're really looking for nice, predictable,

firm supply, and that's what we can provide.

One piece, which is 80% if the plant,

is just a regular steam turbine, conventional power plant.

It's the 20% of this plant that is different than anything

in the world.

We take molten salt in a tank and we pump it up

to a tower.

It's surrounded by a huge field of mirrors

that we're standing in, focuses the sun's energy

at a heat exchange as it sits on top of the tall tower

and it heats that molten salt up from 500 degrees

to over 1000 degrees fahrenheit.

We then store that salt in a large tank

and then we can utilize it for energy generation

when we need to.

Storing the salt allows us to then

to move the electricity production around

to meet the peak demand of the utility.

The tower behind me is surrounded

by over 10,000 heliosestats.

The heliosestats themselves are actually tracking mirrors

that are computer-controlled to track the sun

to deliver the concentrated energy of the sun

to the top of the tower.

When the heliosestats are first installed in the field,

they're initialized and calibrated,

and then turned over computer.

This computer directs the heliosestats where to go,

what to do, so essentially, the algorithm knows exactly

where the sun is and to direct and concentrate its energy

on the top of the tower.

Right now we're standing inside

of this massive stainless steel tank.

The salt that will be in there will be

at a 1050 degrees fahrenheit in a molten state.

When we want to make electricity.

We'll start up our pumps and pump the hot salt

through heat exchangers and supherheaters and make the steam

to be delivered to the steam turbine to make electricity

and deliver to the utility grid.

This material a very high density material

that gives it the properties to store an abundance

of energy.

It is very easy to handle and move,

can be operated at high temperatures.

There's very little concern on hazardous chemicals

and those kinds of things.

Molten salt in this form is not hazardous material.

From an environmental standpoint,

we utilize zero conventional fuels to generate electricity,

so it's a zero emission facility for the life

of the facility.

If you look at whether or not solar could provide 100%

of the electricity supply at some point in the future,

the answer really is yes.

(bright music sting)