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http://www.positivenews.org.uk
A dramatic new feature dominates the landscape in the arid south of Iberia. Europe’s very first, commercially-run, solar energy plant was recently opened in the Spanish town of Sanlúcar la Mayor, Seville. Surrounded by an area as big as 300 football fields covered in mirrors, a cylindrical, 115 metre high solar tower showcases the latest technology.
624 huge mirrors called ‘heliostats’ circle the structure from the ground and automatically track the sun as it moves from east to west. Each 120 square metre mirror reflects the sun’s rays, beaming them back to converge on a receiver at the top of the tower. Intense temperatures of up to 250 degrees centigrade generate steam, which is blasted into turbines to produce electricity for up to 6,000 homes – all without emitting a single whiff of greenhouse gas!
Over the next six years, another 300 megawatt solar platform will be built on the Sanlúcar site, producing power to light up some 180,000 homes, enough for a city the size of Seville. The wider project is expected to prevent annual emissions of at least 600,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
The BBC science correspondent, David Shukman, reported being amazed by the spectacle. “From a distance, I couldn’t believe the strange structure ahead of me was actually real,” he says. “A concrete tower, 40 storeys high, stood bathed in intense white light – a bizarre image in the depths of the Andalusian country-side. The tower looked like it was being hosed with giant sprays of water or was somehow being squirted with jets of pale gas. I had trouble working it out.”
With the most available sunshine of any European country, Spain is leading the way in developing solar energy with projects happening across the country.
Solar panels are now compulsory on all new and renovated buildings as part of the Spanish government’s efforts to meet its 12 per cent objective of energy from renewables by 2010. Another solar power plant is to be built near Granada later on this year, and a gigantic 750 megawatt solar tower near the capital, Madrid, is in the planning stages.
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