owen652 Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 I didn't even know until today that such a thing existed. It produces 20MW of electricity and can power 20,000 homes, not to mention the ability to continue producing power overnight or on cloudy days. Spain has a couple of similar plants, the PS10 and PS20, which, although not as powerful, are even more incredible to look at, with their hundreds of heliostats directing beams of light towards their massive collection towers in a stunning display of nature's power. Looks almost like some ancient altar to the sun god Ra. The coal industry has always scoffed at solar for being incapable of producing power on this kind of scale, but it is now happening in huge leaps and bounds. In the US they are even working on one which is claimed will eventually be capable of 1000MW. Exciting times! I love this shit. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouroboros Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 Takes an awful lot of space though. It covers 450 acres of land. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
owen652 Posted April 28, 2012 Author Share Posted April 28, 2012 Yes, but these kind of plants are usually in desert areas anyway. Australia would be perfect for this, being the world's driest, sunniest continent, yet we lag pathetically behind in solar technology when we should be the world leaders. Out government should be ashamed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeasabird Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 Takes an awful lot of space though. It covers 450 acres of land. Less than a square mile for zero emission power for 20k households? Some back of the envelope math would be a theoretical 4000 square miles needed to power every house in the US. We can probably learn to make due. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
owen652 Posted April 29, 2012 Author Share Posted April 29, 2012 The area required will reduce as the technology improves too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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