PS10 Solar Power Tower - Combine Steam & Solar Power Technologies Into An

Efficient, Pollution-Free Source

Located in Seville, Spain, the PS10 Solar Power Tower is Europe's first commercial solar power tower. It is an 11 megawatt (planned to increase to 300 megawatt) structure that produces electricity using 624 heliostats. Heliostats are huge movable mirrors that concentrate the reflected sunlight and focuses it to the top of the 377 foot, 35-story PS10 Solar Power Tower. Here, the sun's rays power a solar receiver and steam turbine engine that powers a generator to produce electricity. It produces enough electricity to power up to 6,000 homes. Planned expansion of the PS10 Solar Power Tower will make it usable by as many as 600,000 people in the city of Seville in the future. All this is free of any greenhouse emissions harmful to the environment.

Unlike the photovoltaic (PV) solar cells used by conventional solar power systems, the PS10 Solar Power Tower uses solar thermal energy just like the huge multi tower solar projects in development. Solar thermal energy uses solar energy to heat high-temperature collectors. These collectors are flat plates that heat water. At a temperature of 600 degrees Celsius, the heat converts the water into steam. The steam turbines are then used to produce electricity. In addition, unlike conventional solar power systems, solar thermal energy can also work after the sun goes down, almost an hour's worth using the steam built up and stored during the day. Apart from producing no waste byproducts, solar thermal energy also require no external power sources.

This project is the first of two planned towers and heliostat fields. The second planned tower and field is expected to generate a much more ambitious 20 megawatts utilizing 1,255 mirrors that can power an additional 12,000 homes. While the cost of solar thermal energy is about three times more than conventional electricity, it benefits from avoiding the production of 54,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually.

With many countries more and more vigilant about the carbon dioxide emissions they produce, large-scale solar thermal energy projects such as PS10 Solar Power Tower only combine the technology of steam power from the past and solar power of the future. In addition, it also opens doors for exploring and testing other technologies combined similarly to take advantage of each other's strengths and compensate for each other's weaknesses.