如果目前的計算是準確，392兆瓦的設施可讓同行連擁有吹牛權都靠邊站的話，那就來投資吧。 ――BrightSource能源公司的計劃Ivanpah工廠將是世界上最大的太陽能農場 ?也可能是最節能的。

當在莫哈韋國家保護區（預計今年開始建設），太陽能熱電廠建立后，它將運行百分之十八的效率換取百分之三十的系數功率。

這一優勢的運用將會使392兆瓦的設施比運用晶體硅板還要高效，據分析師說，薄膜細胞或擁有競爭性的獨特熱干科技將使用拋物線反射鏡。

但是，確定誰擁有該行業當老大的說話權- 以及誰是值得投資的 ?是每個廠家都想要爭取的，盡管有困難。 在一次采訪中，BrightSource產品經理安迪泰勒講解了太陽光轉化成電力的計算根據公司兩年內在Israel’s Negev Desert中對Luz Power Tower550的測試.

在塔的頂部，鍋爐吸收太陽光反射的7平方米的地面式安裝鏡并且水能加熱到華氏1000度以上，這是達到的同行業的最高溫度。

Nathaniel Bullard，太陽能新能源財經分析師，計算出Ivanpah的電力成本將低于光伏發電，以及同樣作為能源的天然氣低。當然沒有人會確切知道，直到建廠。  “我們將看看他們是否能達到他們制訂的目標，”Bullard 說。

If current calculations are correct, the 392-MW facility may edge out others for bragging rights, investment dollars.

BrightSource Energy’s planned Ivanpah plant will be one of the world’s largest solar farms -- and possibly its most efficient.

When the solar-thermal plant is built on the edge of the Mojave National Preserve (construction is expected to start this year), it will operate at 18 percent efficiency and earn a capacity factor of 30 percent.

This performance should make the 392-MW facility more efficient than plants with crystalline-silicon panels, thin-film cells or rival thermal technologies using parabolic mirrors, according to analysts.

The plant is to be laid out on three nearby tracts covering 3,500 acres of desert and should run at full capacity 10 to 11 hours a day. The company says a back-up natural gas system will aid performance during its long hours of operation, easing power fluctuations on cloudy days.

This consistency of power should put electricity costs on par with natural-gas plants, something photovoltaic plants will take another two years to achieve, some analysts say. While comparing plants is complex and imperfect, the newly available figures from BrightSource make the exercise a useful chore. Sun intensity, atmospheric moisture levels and power transmission costs of course differ plant location to plant location.

But determining who holds the industry’s bragging rights -- as well as who deserves project investment dollars -- is a task utilities attempt everyday, despite the difficulties. In an interview, BrightSource Product Manager Andy Taylor described Ivanpah’s efficiency as a sunlight-to-electricity calculation based on two years of testing the company’s Luz Power Tower 550 in Israel’s Negev Desert.

At the top of the towers, boilers absorb sunlight reflected from 7-square-meter ground-mounted mirrors and heat water to more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest temperature in the industry. The super-heated steam drives turbines.

The company says a back-up natural gas system permits the long operating hours and the ability to run most of the day at full capacity. The gas is used to warm boilers in the morning and augment solar power on cloudy days to keep output high. “We’re pretty much a sun-up-to-sun-down resource,” Taylor says.

BrightSource, which has so far raised more than $300 million in financing, expects the plant’s efficiency to rise as the company moves beyond its first-generation technology. Higher-efficiency turbines are already in the market, and additional mirrors, or heliostats, can be deployed. Water temperatures also will rise to above 1,100 degrees.

In contrast to Ivanpah’s 18 percent efficiency, the efficiency of utility-scale crystalline silicon and thin-film plants is likely less than 12 percent. Solar-thermal plants with parabolic mirrors also have difficulties keeping up. Ivanpah’s higher boiler temperatures give it an advantage, and dual-axis tracking can more accuratel