How solar power towers produce solar power for homes

Mentioning the term “solar power towers” in public and, odds on, you would likely draw a blank look on most people’s faces. Not many people have heard of them. Yet solar power towers undoubtedly are among the most innovative examples of solar technology in the world today. They represent a new phenomenon. Without doubt, solar power towers are on the rise.

Solar power towers are increasingly being seen as an important and effective way of capturing the sun’s heat and radiation in order to generate large amounts of electricity for the common use. Solar power towers have numerous advantages. The most important advantage offered by solar power towers is that they truly can generate huge amounts of electricity for general and governmental use.

The concept of solar power towers was started in America but today this project is rapidly spreading across the world. Europe in particular is not far behind regarding this technology.

Solar power towers function in a fairly straight forward way. Although the plant used to build solar power towers and their actual size may seem gigantic, how they work is still fairly basic.

Solar power towers are built by using photovoltaic tiles, high quality glass and sodium metal. Sodium has a very useful feature. Its characteristic of absorbing high amounts of heat is very useful in this context.

The solar power tower itself is a simple tower built with the sodium metal as its core material. The height of the tower depends on the amount of electricity that is to be generated by the tower. The higher the tower, the more electricity it will generate.

The tower is surrounded by numerous blocks of glass-like rectangular shaped photovoltaic tiles. They play a key role in generating the electricity, attracting the sunlight from the sun and reflecting it towards the solar power towers.

They are placed at such an angle as to reflect the sunlight directly towards the tower. Since solar power towers are made up of sodium they can be heated up to extreme temperatures, even reaching temperatures of up to 3000 degrees.

When solar power towers are at their hottest, the energy is stored in them and that energy can then be used later on throughout the evening to supply solar power for homes and public utilities.

The initial cost for constructing solar power towers is very high which is why you don’t see so many of them all over the place. Nevertheless, their excellent results have encouraged many governments to seriously consider building more solar power towers for their countries.

Of course, solar power towers generate clean sustainable energy that can be used to deliver solar power for homes to thousands of people so they can seemlessly run their domestic electrical equipment. Assuming they are situated within the right climate geographically, solar power towers can easily be built to support  a whole city’s street lights and a lot of other things besides.

If you had never heard of them before, you will surely be hearing more and more about solar power towers in the future. If you don’t believe me, take a look at the world’s largest solar power tower that has just begun operating outside Seville in Spain.

This development represents an historic moment in the history of renewable energy. The solar tower PS20, (pictured above beside its smaller sister, PS10) generates 20 megawatts of electricity. This means that it can power 10,000 homes with renewable solar power for homes.

Having seen the scale of this project, knowing that there are many more being created ongoingly, you begin to get a sense that truly solar power towers are here to stay.

from Sam Deane,
your solar power for homes guide,
at www dot go solar power for homes dot com

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