Solar electric plant

Solar electric plant is installation of devices converting the energy of solar light to electricity.

Solar electric plants are wanted to be alternative to the nuclear power plants while the humanity is not yet ready for the civilized use of the nuclear energy.

The building of powerful solar plants is considered as indication of prosperity an important element of the image making for the governments. Representatives of various countries pretend to have the "biggest in the world" solar electric plant in their countries . The criterion to consider various installations as one combined solar nuclear plant, or to consider them as separated plants, affects on qualification of an electric solar plant as "biggest in the world".

In the most of cases, either the vapor generation by heat (and the use of the steam power with turbines and generators) or the direct photovoltaic elements are used.

As Sun delivers power of order of kW/m^2, the area occupied by the solar electric plant is roughly proportional to the power it generates. The nuclear power plants in this sense are more compact. However, the solar electric plants become more compact at the consideration of a 100km zone around the nuclear plant that becomes contaminated and not suitable for agriculture at the core meltdown and evaporation of the nuclear fuel into the atmosphere. The construction of powerful solar plants was boosted in 2011 by the Fukushima disaster.