Education and Research

Cogentrix Solar trip 27jun2015

June 27, 2015

Tour of the Cogentrix Solar Plant

Trip leader: Brad Gagne, Cogentrix Plant Manager

The Cogentrix Alamosa Solar Project is the largest high concentrating solar photovoltaic power generation facility in the world. The site, on 225 acres in the San Luis Valley, was chosen for the outstanding sunlight characteristics which are necessary for concentrating photovoltaic technologies. The Alamosa Solar Project consists of over 500 dual-axis, pedestal mounted tracker assemblies, each capable of producing approximately 60 kW of electricity from the sun. Each tracker assembly is 70 feet wide by 50 feet high and contains 7,560 Fresnel lenses that concentrate sunlight by a multiple of 500 onto multijunction solar cells developed originally as part of the US space program. The solar facility is projected to generate approximately 76,000 MWh per year, which displaces approximately 249 million cubic feet of natural gas that would have been used by a comparable conventional natural gas–fired power plant. This eliminates the generation of approximately 43,250 tons of carbon dioxide per year.

Trip Details

The cost of the tour is $5.00. Preregistration requested. To register for the trip, follow the registration link below. We will meet at 8:30 AM at the Blanca Vista Park parking lot (pond just north of the State Street Bridge). This is a half-day tour; we will wrap up around 11:00 AM. If you have problems with the registration website or have questions about the trip, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

We hope you can join us.

Sign Me Up Registration Link