The Amazing Solar Tower of Seville

Located in the Andalusian countryside of Southern Spain, near Seville, is a giant 115 meter high concrete tower surrounded by a field of 624 huge mirrors. These mirrors collect the sunlight and focus it at the top of the concrete tower, where it heats water passing through pipes, converting it into steam. This steam drives a series of turbines that produce electricity. Simple, efficient, environment friendly and spectacular!


The current capacity of the Solar Tower is 11MW. The plant when completed in 2013, will produce around 300MW – energy enough for 180,000 homes, equivalent to the needs of the city of Seville, and saving 600,000 tonnes of annual carbon dioxide emissions. We urgently need more of these.


http://35mm.instantfundas.com/2008/09/green-energy-amazing-solar-tower-of.html

It's ridiculous that we haven't been doing things like this for years.

Seriously... a bunch of mirrors and a few turbines? A series of tubes?

How do you bend people over the barrel with that technology? :eyes:

GO SPAIN! :woohoo:

Abengoa is the parent company of Solucar, the company that built the system.

Abengoa is also part of the Bechtel group.

Aside from solar energy, they are into biofuel, water rights control, and intellectual property appropriation, among other things. They are intimately connected to the World Bank. They are heavily subsidized by both Spain and the EEC, but I have been unable to find any of their projects that have resulted in cheaper or more abundant energy for anyone. Over 250 million Euros went into just one single solar project that hasn't even been completed.

Don't trust me? There is plenty more to be found with Google.

If we're counting on so-called "green" energy to free us from the corporations, we're looking in the wrong place.

--p!

:shrug: the article doesnt say. There are plenty of cool, green ways to generate 11MW or even 300MW. The real questions is: how cost effective is it?

FEW WILL USE RENEWABLE POWER UNTIL IT IS CHEAPER THAN FOSSIL FUELS

You have to look at the bigger picture sometimes.
When looking at solar and other renewable energy sources, while more expensive, they are better for the planet (ok OUR SURVIVAL, EARTH will be fine) and that has to be taken into consideration.

AND.. it can be done with lower-cost parts if someone wanted to.
Concrete, or stone, is really cheap, pipes are also cheap, turbines are just electric motors that turn backwards.
How hard would it be to make a low-cost solution?
it would not generate at much energy, probably, but it would be a H E L L of a lot cheaper.
Reflective surfaces, are also possible at low cost. They don't have to be high-end polished steel/glass, but could be something as easily available as aluminum from soda cans, re-tooled and stitched/welded together to form a mirror.

You're not going to get 300 megawatts, but think about the power needs of a small village in Africa, or south America where the SUN is in abundance, but maybe not money for a proper solar energy generation station.

The most expensive part of the tower in this instance is the generator.

UN-polished metal can always be used for a windmill connected to a generator to create energy day AND night. The parts don't HAVE to cost a fortune. You can use a alternator from a auto for a small generator in your back yard, for example.

I like this tower, it's beautiful, and viable. it reduces carbon, and produces energy, at least during the day.
We all need to learn to live with less energy, the golden age of luxury is rapidly coming to a end.

better to adjust now, while we are still comfortable than in mad max's future...
Use the resources we have to go to the enxt level, while we still can, or there will be NOTHING left