solar seville

Amazing! This is Europe’s first commercial solar power station near Seville, Spain. PS10, is a 300ft tall tower surrounded by 624 solar panels which will produce enough energy to power 60,000 homes.

Here is how the tower works: the solar panels, a 120m2 mixture of mirrors and photovoltaics, track the sun throughout the year, reflect the energy of the sun to solar receptor at the top of the tower. Water passes through pipes at the top, and is heated enough to turn it into steam by the solar receptor, which in turn passes through a series of turbines to produce electricity.

The area around the tower becomes so bright, that it actually illuminates the water vapor and dust that is in the air. It becomes necessary to wear sunglasses while you are there.

The goal is to provide enough green energy for 180,000 homes, or most of the population of Seville. The final project, able to produce over 300MW, will include a series of towers, two more of which are being built, and standard photovoltaic power plants, as well as a mixture of newer parabolic solar collectors which will be installed at a later stage. The entire power plant will be operational by 2013. The entire development, once it’s operational, will generate zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Boy, I’d rather see something like this in the United States, than nuculear (as the big W would say) power plants!

Now check out ocean power in California here.

Thanks to www.inhabitat.com for info.