Dec 7 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.

Should SkyFuel decide to locate a 1,000-megawatt solar power plant near Del Norte, the company hopes to use a new technology that would make solar power cheaper and easier to get to market.

The Department of Energy awarded the company a $435,000 grant at the end of last month to continue research on its Linear Power Tower.

The system uses a Fresnel-lens style array of mirrors, the same style of lens commonly used in flattened magnifying glasses, stop lights and lighthouses, said William Felsher, vice president of project sales for the company. The style would allow the company to lay its panels out flat close to the ground in a North-South configuration, and tilt them side to side to catch the sun's daily journey from East to West across the sky. The system is cheaper and easier to maintain than systems using smaller, pole-mounted mirrors, which each must have their own motors and mounting gear.

The long thin panels reflect the sun's light toward a single horizontal "tower" to gather the heat.

The company believes that the power towers, along with the high temperature and storage capabilities of molten salt, will make its power less expensive and easier to distribute to market. The company says a five-gallon bucket of molten salt can store the energy needed for a person for an entire day.

SkyFuel hopes to build the power tower by 2011.