Spain’s round-the-clock solar power plant
Solar power is pretty awesome, except for that whole thing where it only works when the sun is out.
Well, that used to be the case, but Al Goodman of CNN has news for you:
Located just outside the quaint village of Fuentes de AndalucĂa, Gemasolar bills itself as the world’s first commercial-scale concentrated solar power plant (CSP) that uses molten salts receiver technology.
2,650 large mirrors called heliostats direct the suns rays to a receiver at the top of Gemasolar’s 450-feet tower that shines like a beacon during the day.
The stored energy can generate electricity for 15 hours without the sun shining and according to Arias the plant can provide 19.9MW of power, enough for a town of about 100,000 people.