Solana is the first commercial concentrated solar power plant in the United States to use molten-salt thermal energy storage. It can generate power at maximum capacity for six hours without solar radiation, producing electricity when needed during cloudy periods, after sunset, or before the sun rises. As of 2014, Solana is also the largest plant in the World adopting parabolic trough technology. It has an installed gross capacity of 280 MW, which can serve 71,000 households, preventing 430,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year, as compared to those of a natural-gas plant. The plant is located 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, near Gila Bend, Arizona. It started operations in 2013.
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