Building of the first solar tower that will generate electricity commercially was announced by Solucar Energia, SA in Spain. The 11 MW power tower, called PS-10, under construction near Seville will be Europe's largest solar plant. The field surrounding the tower will consist of 624 large mirrors built on computer controlled pedestals to focus the sunlight on the top of a 330 foot tower, generating steam to make electricity. The control system will synchronize the movement of all the mirrors relative to the sun's position in order to maximize the plants performance. The plant will benefit greatly from last year's royal decree that will allow it to sell power for up to three times the normal rate. The plant is scheduled to be operational by July 2006.
Further information on solar towers can be found in this previous post.
Resource: "Spain to Build an 11-Megawatt Solar Power Tower", EERE News, 8/24/05
Technocrati tags: solar power, solar tower, renewable energy
Any idea what the relative efficiency of a steam turbine solar collector like this is compared to a stirling solar collector?
Posted by: JesseJenkins | August 26, 2005 at 11:46 AM