Sun Balloons

By Rico



Cool Earth Solar's power plant will imitate that of a UFO parking lot beacuse of its next idea. They are gigantic, inexpensive balloons with plastic film with an aluminum lining but within each is a photovoltaic cell at the center. The sun's rays are concentrated on the eight foot wide balloon's power cell that can generate a kilowatt of electricity, 350 times as much without the cell alone (without the balloon.) And if you panic about the thought of hail penetrating the balloon, they say that it will merely create a small patchable leak. The company plans to build a power plant near Livermore, California, headquaters this summer to generate one-megawatt, and a 10,000 balloon, 10-megawatt plant with enough to power 3,500 homes next year.