I’ll note that this is a very atypical solar facility:
- It burns significant amounts of methane gas for morning pre-heating
- It’s far less cost-effective than modern photovoltaics
- Funding was from a mix of public money and a venture firm advised by RFK Jr.
I don’t expect to see much more solar thermal built to replace it; photovoltaic has gotten too good and too cheap.
Edit: sorry about the source; only coverage so far
As far as I know, it needed to burn gas to get the water up to operating temperature each morning, then the sun light would take over to continue turning the water to steam.