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Rock Melting With A Solar Furnace; It`s Melty!

The BBC visits a Solar Research facility and witnesses the incredible power generated by highly concentrated sunlight.

submitted by: DickenMcHunt
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Rock Melting With A Solar Furnace; It`s Melty!. The BBC visits a Solar Research facility and witnesses the incredible power generated by highly concentrated sunlight.
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Hits: 20789 | Favorites: 28 | Emailed: 8 | Rating: 3.7 | Category: Technology | Date: 11/24/2010
 
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tuapui
Male, 18-29, Asia
 91 Posts 		Friday, November 26, 2010 4:34:09 AM
whoaaaaa.........


.....it's a double rainbow!
Angilion
Male, 40-49, Europe
 9676 Posts 		Thursday, November 25, 2010 3:27:16 PM
On the plus side...if you look at the numbers, it's possible on paper to meet the entire world demand for electricity a fair few times over with CSP blanketed over deserts.
Angilion
Male, 40-49, Europe
 9676 Posts 		Thursday, November 25, 2010 3:14:35 PM
Oh, and the cost per watt is a couple of times as much as it is for coal/oil/gas.

Fancy your electricity bill doubling? Tripling?
Angilion
Male, 40-49, Europe
 9676 Posts 		Thursday, November 25, 2010 3:11:04 PM
The other problem is the amount of land used.

California is a good place for this sort of thing - lots of strong sunlight, lots of land that isn't already built on, lots of "green" frenzy.

So they`re planning on a record-sized CSP power station.

It generates 370MW, which makes it a small-medium power station.

It covers 3400 acres.

It damages or destroys fragile ecosystems.

This sort of thing is part of an answer, but it`s not the magic wonderthing some people make it out to be.

Details and a picture of a small-scale CSP tower in Spain

Good looking power station, though.
Angilion
Male, 40-49, Europe
 9676 Posts 		Thursday, November 25, 2010 3:04:43 PM
hey buddy got a light? imagine the energy you could produce using this to heat water and it could be used as hot water heater or power generator .....wow how come we aren't using this on Mass production or plant situations ?


People are. It`s the CSP (concentrated solar power) that I referred to earlier. It`s used to generate electricity the same way that most power stations do it - by boiling a fluid and using the steam to drive a turbine.

Making a very small area very hot is not the same thing as boiling fluid on a huge scale, though. That`s much harder and much less dramatic. You need to elevate the tank so that more rows of mirrors can focus on it over the top of the row in front of them, which quickly leads to unfeasibly tall towers. 380ft for an 11MW tower at the moment and there`s not very much scope for improving on that.
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