Small Desert Town Switches Almost Completely to Solar Technology

A small town next to the Mojave desert will be switching 85% of their energy use to solar energy via Skyline Solar, a significant step towards U.S. energy independence.

Nipton, California is a small desert town on the outskirts of the Mojave Desert, about 45 miles outside of Las Vegas, Nevada.  The municipal solar power plant for Nipton will now have High Gain Solar (HGS) Arrays from a company called Skyline Solar, announced Thursday according to an article from CNET.com.

Skyline Solar’s HGS arrays were built to use less silicone while still providing the same amount of solar power, which in turn cuts down on a lot of the manufacturing costs.  Basically, they use a reflective cradle made of sheet metal that concentrates the sunlight onto monocrystalline silicone cells.  Skyline Solar says that their HGS array technology offers ten times more energy per gram of silicone than other solar technology, without having to use high concentrator systems.

A restored ghost town for the most part, Nipton has a population of fewer than 1,000 people and offers to tourists and visitors a hotel, trading post, and café.   This is designed to service the average passer-by and tourist with the usual on-the-go commodities before they head to Vegas, the Mojave Desert preserve, or Joshua Tree National Park.  

This new HGS array technology will most likely be recognized by the company who presents it, (Skyline Solar) and will show an example of how green technology can integrate with existing energy companies to provide more jobs and income in the United States.

The United States Department of Energy has given Skyline Solar $3 Million in stimulus funding and New Enterprise Associates, as well as other investors, have jumped on the band wagon specifically to explore and develop arrays that could work with existing laborers and cut down on silicone manufacturing costs by generating $24.6 million in investments.  A few auto industry manufacturers have started to work hand-in-hand with Skyline Solar to provide different parts for this new solar panel technology, including racks, mounting brackets, and sheet metal.

Not only will this help explore new possibilities for a cleaner energy source, but it will also cut down on the cost for building solar energy panels in the long run, creating affordable and more technologically advanced ways to capture solar energy.  With the BP oil spill in the Gulf, as well as a multitude of other reasons that fossil fuels should become a way of the past, it seems that Skyline Solar is making a positive effort to develop the change this country is in desperate need of.

The most detrimental reason for our exploration of clean energy lies with not only the availability we have but also the example we will set as a nation.  If the United States, being the strongest, most technologically advanced, and most powerful nation in the world switches to clean energy completely it is inevitable that other countries will follow and we can stop polluting the earth because of the conveniences of one species on it.