[usadatronourl]

- in a glowing 'lightbulb' tower hot enough to melt salt


By Rob Waugh

Last updated at 5:25 PM on 6th October 2011

• Solar plant 'boils' salt using 2,600 mirrors
• Can store power for 15 hours without sunshine and work for 24 hours

The first solar plant that can operate without the sun has been officially opened.

The £260million Germasolar power plant has been designed to work even through the night and can store heat to power turbines for 15 hours without exposure to sunlight.

The plant - a tower with a glowing 'bulb' surrounded by 2,600 mirrors - is situated near Seville, one of the hottest places on the European mainland.
The plant is a heliostatic solar plant - a solar furnace - which uses mirrors to concentrate the intense heat onto two salt tanks. The 900C heat melts the salt, boiling water around it to drive turbines.


This blinding light is the world's first 24-hour solar plant in action - during the day it 'stores' heat in tanks of molten salt, which then drives steam turbines through the night

'Renewable' technology such as wind turbines is often hobbled by the fact that mankind is not master of the elements. If the wind dies down, the power goes off. The heat-storage of Germasolar's tanks can clear this hurdle.

Makers Torresol say, 'The salts are stored in a hot tank, saving the heat to be used when solar radiation is low. The salts transfer the stored heat and continue to generate electrical power through the night.'



Enqrique Sendagorta, of the engineering company behind the plant says, 'We want to become a global company that develops the use of concentrated solar power. The start up of this plant is a first decisive step.'

The salts - a combination of sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate - always remain in liquid form. The plant is not at full capacity yet - it's projected to reach 70 per cent capacity by next year.


The £260 million Gemasolar Power Plant in AndalucÌa, Spain, is made of 2,650 panels spread across 185 hectares. The mirrors focus 95 per cent of the sun's radiation on to a giant receiver at the centre of the plant


Seville's climate, of course, is uniquely adapted to solar power - and not every nation has the time, or the budget, or the space for 2,600 mirrors angled towards a central tower.

There are very few such plants around the world - and Torresol's is the only one built with 24-hour capacity in mind.

The plant began production in May, and hit 24-hour production during a sunny spell earlier this summer. Feasibility studies have been carried out into an even bigger solar plant to be built in South Africa.

Environmentalists have hailed it as a vindication of solar technology, 'The ability to generate electricity even after dark is a monumental milestone for solar technology. No longer hamstrung by sunset, the Germasolar plant should be a competitive and comparable alternative to conventional power plants,' says Chris Haslam, author of How to Stop Climate Change.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...#ixzz1aD9TW3q5

[wmzeto]

Hmmm...

Similar to an idea I had as a teenager: Use solar-generated electricity to pump water uphill into a reservoir, then harness the "hydro" power at night as the water flows back downhill through turbines. If you set up the pumping flow rates properly, you could achieve 24/7 power provided you're in a regularly sunny place.

[Greapyjeory]

Any article about generating power that does not give the power generating capacity of the plant is not informing . . . they are misleading.

[Janny2006]

It is an excellent idea despite them not providing technical specifics. Store the sun energy at 900 degrees Celcius (1652 Fahrenheit) and let it boil water all night long. This is a good idea and the type of thing we should be thinking about. MOLTEN SALT! I love it.




My idea was to take the magnetic shakers they use in flashlights and put them in a sea buoy. Let the ocean shake them and generate power when the magnets pass back and forth in the tube.


There is so much potential for these kinds of set-ups, it's ridiculous.

[Greapyjeory]

My idea was to take the magnetic shakers they use in flashlights and put them in a sea buoy.

The best feature of the ocean is the lack of light polution. You would ruin this?

Those buoys used to be filled with gas and the flame burned inside a lense to warn ships from shoal areas.

[DoctorNiCYDEn]

Hmmm...

Similar to an idea I had as a teenager: Use solar-generated electricity to pump water uphill into a reservoir, then harness the "hydro" power at night as the water flows back downhill through turbines. If you set up the pumping flow rates properly, you could achieve 24/7 power provided you're in a regularly sunny place.

Great low tech "battery". In a windy place, you could use a wind pump, that is completely mechanical to charge the reservoire, further you could fill it up with rainpower especially if you siphone in the water with a canvas when it is raining. I probably have a 70-80 feet height difference at my 5 acre bug out land, and it is windy there. This could be an excellent way of getting electricity, on demand at a low cost, both investment and maintenance wise. Further the water reservoirs could be used as fishponds, the turbines and the pumps should ensure good oxygenation of the water

[dXI9XFOA]

Hmmm...

Similar to an idea I had as a teenager: Use solar-generated electricity to pump water uphill into a reservoir, then harness the "hydro" power at night as the water flows back downhill through turbines. If you set up the pumping flow rates properly, you could achieve 24/7 power provided you're in a regularly sunny place.

I believe this method is currently used in some places:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_...anical_storage

[DoctorNiCYDEn]

I just checked up on a micro hydro turbine the POWERSPOUT a lowcost turbine. They have a calculator on their site. To be able to get a 1000 Watts of electricity. I would need to run aproximately 3 gallons per second from the upper cistern situated 70 feet higher than the lower cistern, which make it a bit more than 10.000 gallons/hour. If I need a "battery" for 24 hours without wind. I would need a cistern size of a quarter million gallons, which would be aproximately a thousand cubic meters, that would be a cube with 10m height, length and width...

[chootsonege]

Any article about generating power that does not give the power generating capacity of the plant is not informing . . . they are misleading.

19.9 MW. http://inhabitat.com/video-gemasolar...r-power-plant/

Small, but interesting. Probably the power output per acre is low compared to other power generation facilities, but the source is free.

[jurhoonee]

Impressive.

[chootsonege]

This is basically like concentrating the sun with a magnifying glass to start a fire, except the heat is used to boil water which turns a generator. In this case they added a eutectic salt mixture to store energy for use at night. Of course they lose a lot of daytime generation melting the salt, but spread the power generation out over a longer period. Sounds like a good design.

[Ltftujkg]

Yea, it is interesting. Free energy sources are a good thing. I just wonder how the heilostats and their mirrors would hold up to a good hail storm. It looks kinda fragile.

I would be more worried about a big sand storm gumming the works up; though golf ball sized hail could also be challenging.

[BEyng6hj]

They supposedly get thunderstorms there, which is why I asked. Saw no reference to that in the links or video.
...and yea, sandstorms probably wouldn't be too good for it either. Need lots of smooth working gears to constantly track the Sun all day.

The systems I have looked at and studied,the mirror field tracks the sun and are computer controlled and in bad weather the mirrors can be repositioned so they are mostly out of harms way.