SEGS was the first solar power station to commercially adopt Parabolic Trough technology. It consists of nine Concentrated Solar Power plants located in California's Mojave Desert with a combined installed net capacity of 354 MW (474,700 hp). During the day, it can power up to 232,500 homes. Up until 2014, it was the largest solar thermal energy generating facility in the World. It installs a total of 936,384 mirrors that concentrate light to heat a synthetic oil that is then used to drive a steam turbine-generator. The first SEGS plant entered operation in 1985. From 2003 to 2014, SEGS produced an average net 588,767 MWh / year of electricity. On cloudy days, a supplementary natural gas boiler can be used to produce steam to drive the turbine-generator.
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