The Sun in Spain Shines Mainly in the Day

1. Spain has invested vast amounts of money in green energy projects.
2. Spain's climate is conducive to solar power projects, but solar plants have trouble generating power at night.
3. I a scene reminiscent of Ringworld,Torresol has erected a concentrator in the midst of a vast sea of collectors which use the solar radiation to melt sodium.
4. Molten sodium is then used as a storage medium for the heat, generating power by running steam turbines with that canned heat.

This is a fairly clever method for getting around two of the inherent difficulties of dependable solar power - clouds, and the Earth itself (it gets in the way at night, you see).
It remains to be seen how well this really works, both in delivery of a consistent stream of power, and in its economic viability - especially without vast governmental subsidies.

The other question is whether this nearly 500 acres of land could be more profitably used in some other activity, but from a technical standpoint, this is an impressive start.


Posted by Procrustes 17

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