Solar power plant made from 10,000 giant mirrors

Large mirrors focus sunlight to melt nitrate salts, thereby producing enough electricity to power an entire city.

Crescent Dune Power Plant in the Nevada Desert. Photo: Solar Reserve

According toBusiness InsiderEach of these solar panels measures 115 square meters and is placed around a central tower. A total of 10,000 of these panels have been installed since late 2015 across an area of ​​1.2 million square meters at Crescent Dune, a concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in the Nevada desert, USA.

According to Kevin Smith, one of the project's founders, these panels are not the traditional photovoltaic panels commonly found on rooftops or solar power plants around the world.

“The downside of photovoltaics is that they are intermittent,” Smith said. “When the sun goes down, they can’t be used anymore.”

They are real mirrors, oriented like sunflowers to follow the path of the Sun during the day. They will focus the reflection of sunlight precisely on the top of the tower, where the energy will be stored in molten salt.

According to Smith, this is the “most advanced energy storage technology,” far superior to storing it in water, in batteries or in liquid-filled parabolic dishes.

The central tower is where theabout 25,000 tonsThe nitrate salt of sodium and potassium, heated to 288 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the salt exists in liquid form.

“We heat the salt to 560 degrees Celsius. The salt then flows down the tower and is held in a large tank,” Smith said.

Molten salt holds heat very well, and the heat would be converted into electricity using traditional steam turbines. The system could power the needs of 75,000 Nevada homes, 24 hours a day.

Smith believes that CSP is not only a replacement for traditional photovoltaic panels, but also a potential competitor to conventional fuels.

“It will replace fossil fuels, even nuclear fuels. You can't power a whole city with just solar and wind, but you can with CSP because of its storage capacity.”

Smith's company Solar Reverse has developed cheaper, higher-capacity CSP power plants and plans to build similar Crescent Dune power plants in South Africa, Chile and China.

Of course, this technology also has disadvantages: CSP can only operate effectively in areas with strong and continuous sunlight. In return, CSP does not pollute, uses much less water than thermal or nuclear power plants, and takes up a much smaller area than coal-fired thermal power plants.

According to VNE