Acciona Energia investing a 500 million euros (about $775 million) into 2 new solar thermal plants in Palma del Río, Cordoba, in southern Spain. Each will have a capacity of 50 megawatts and together they should be able to power 75,000 homes, or 244 million kWh a year. They should be operational in 2010. “The plants will cover the area of about 260 hectares, or 364 soccer fields, comprising 1,520 solar collectors and a truly mind boggling 364,800 mirrors which will focus the sun’s rays into the collectors. ”
The first picture in this post is a photo of Nevada Solar One, the first concentrating solar power plant in the US, also built by Acciona Energia. The company is a heavyweight when it comes to renewable energy in general, not just with solar: “They are the world leader in wind power, totalling 5,300MW in 192 separate wind parks,” and they also work with biomass, mini hydro, biofuels, cogeneration, etc.
– from www.treehugger.com www.acciona-energia.com
Solar Millennium wins Energy Globe Award
* Outstanding contribution to climate-friendly power generation
* Greatest growth potential for solar thermal power plants
http://www.solarmillennium.de/Press/Press_Releases/Solar_Millennium_wins_Energy_Globe_Award,lang2,50,778.html
Wow i am doing a science project on this subject and i find this very interesting. One question,are the pipes black or not
long back i saw one documentary on Nevada Solar One in National geographic channel. There they are using a special double layer tube for collecting heat. one outer layer of glass and inner layer of steel. space between these 2 tubes are vacuum. special liquid flows through the inner tube. They call it thermos tube.
I am not sure about this. Please check on net.