2008-04-17

The PS10 Solar Power Tower

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.
clipped from ecoworldly.com

PS10, SpainLocation: 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.

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk

HOW THE SOLAR TOWER WORKS
Annotated pictures of solar tower, receiver, heliostat
clipped from pubs.asce.org

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.

ALTAC

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 : EcoWorldly
Related:
PS10 solar power tower - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Power station harnesses Sun's rays
First EU Commercial Concentrating Solar Power Tower Opens in Spain
ASCE: Tower of Power