One of oldest forms of energy used by humans -- sunlight concentrated by mirrors -- is poised to make an astonishing comeback. An example is the "Solar Tower" Planta Solar 10 (PS10 ), a solar power plant located in Sanlucar la Mayor, Spain.
 Location: Seville, Spain.
Megawatts: 11 MW currently, planned increase to 300 MW.
Solar Company and Electric Utility: Mirrors by Abengoa and power tower by ALTAC.
Status: Operating. Scheduled 300 MW production by 2013.
More: With the completion of other solar energy plants in the same area, the total energy production will be about 300 MW. The current power tower stands 115 meters above the surrounding sunflower fields. 624 heliostat mirrors focus sunlight on the tower. Source: Environment News Service; BBC. Photo: WikiMedia.
HOW THE SOLAR TOWER WORKS
Several hundred movable mirrors, known as heliostats, below, reflect the sun's rays into the 115 m tall tower, which, as the previous pages suggest, appears to learn toward the field of reflectors. |
Beginning at an elevation of 100 m, an opening extends 14.1 m in width and 15.3 m in height to enable the sun's reflected rays to reach the receiver.
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Via:
Mega Solar: the World’s 13 Biggest Solar Thermal Energy Projects : EcoWorldlyRelated:
PS10 solar power tower - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaBBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Power station harnesses Sun's raysFirst EU Commercial Concentrating Solar Power Tower Opens in SpainASCE: Tower of Power
clipped from news.bbc.co.uk
clipped from pubs.asce.org
