Heliostat – The Solar Energy Of The Future
With energy costs increasing and a growing awareness of the damage that using fossil fuels might be triggering to the environment there is a will to advertise other forms of power generation. These forms of energy are generically described renewable resource and include things like wave and wind power.
A typical form of renewable resource that does not have adverse effects on the environment is solar power. Solar energy has actually been used for countless years but it is just in the last fifty years that photovoltaic (PV) innovation has been utilized to create electricity. In the early days of this technology, it was just too inefficient to be considered as a viable option to nonrenewable fuel sources for powering cities and towns.
It was also costly so it wound up being used in remote locations where there was no connection to the grid or for people with lots of money. Over the years the technology has improved the effectiveness and the rate has boiled down.
It has actually started people believing about creating solar energy power stations and providing energy for thousands of people at a time and ultimately supporting cities and towns. This post will go over how the solar energy power station works and some power stations that are currently functional and some that are prepared in the future.
There are several solar power stations in operation at the minute. The biggest Solar power station to be constructed is still in the planning phase in Australia and if it is completed will be the greatest man made structure ever built.
How Does A Solar Energy Power Station Work
The present solar power station includes a big number of solar reflectors (called heliostats). They are formed in a circle around a solar tower. The point of the heliostats is to direct the suns energy to the base of the solar tower. This highly focused heat rises up the tower and at the same time runs turbines or heats up liquid. The turbines are utilized to develop electricity or the liquid is made into steam which can also be used to run electrical energy producing turbines. The European solar energy station presently supports 6000 houses in and around Seville in Spain. The hopes are that it will eventually support the entire city as the variety of heliostats is increased. The Australian job aims to provide electrical energy to 100,000 houses.
Other Factors to consider Of The Solar Power Station
Clearly the area of the power station is critical. Once again, Spain and Australia have the space however this may not be available in high density living locations like significant cities.
The cost of developing a solar power station is much more complicated and pricey than a conventional power station nevertheless the believing on this expense will change in the future. As fossil fuels go up in price it will be prudent to have an other or solar type of renewable resource generator in location. Individuals are more responsive to eco-friendly energy production than the other option to fossil fuels energy, namely nuclear power.
