The Solar One 10-megawatt demonstration plant in Barstow, California. The plant produced over 38 million kilowatt-hours of electricity during its operation from 1982 to 1988. The technology utilizes many large, sun-tracking mirrors (heliostats) to focus sunlight on a receiver at the top of a tower. A heat transfer fluid heated in the receiver is used to generate steam, which, in turn, is used in a conventional turbine-generator to produce electricity. Subsequent designs utilize molten nitra