Israel to Witness World's First Solar-Hybrid Power Plant

This solar flower is the first in the world to mix concentrated solar power with hybrid-microturbine in order to produce power non-stop.
It seems that the system comes from sci-fi movies, but it's real, moreover it has already been installed by
Aora in Kibbutz Samar in Israel. On June 24, 2009 the system will go online. Built in a desert, it occupies a rather small area of land due to the fact that it takes advantage of efficient solar reflectors, if compared to similar system. In addition, Kibbutz Samar's tower generates enough electricity to power 70 homes.
Here's how it works:

during the whole day, the system's 30 heliostats track the sun and bring its light to the top of a 30-meters tall tower that concentrates the solar energy into solar thermal. The tower also features a micro-turbine that can be powered by solar thermal. However, when there's no sun, it can run on biodiesel, natural gas or biogas.
Due to the fact that the system is hybrid and is able to function for 24 hours a day, theoretically a number of similar system could be installed in different small communities. Thus they could provide electricity to a village without having to connect to the general electric grid network. At the moment the company plans to set up similar system in several countries. On June 24, 2009 people will witness the official presentation of the system. link....