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The PlantaSolar 20 (PS20):
Spain's New Solar Power Station
The Spanish renewable energy company Abengoa solar has just brought their latest solar power station, the PlantaSolar 20 or PS20, online. This tower uses concentrated sunlight to generate electricity, and produces enough to power 10,000 homes.
The power station is located near Seville in Spain. It consists of 1255 giant mirrors called heliostats. These mirrors act to concentrate the sunlight falling on their surface into a single point on the top of the tower. The top of the tower, which is 531 feet high, becomes super heated. Water is passed through the top of the tower where it turns into steam, and the steam is used to drive a turbine to make electricity. The turbine is housed in a separate structure at the base of the tower.The new tower doubles the electricity producing capacity of the PS10, which until now had been the largest capacity solar tower in commercial operation. The plant also improves on several aspects of the PS10 such as improvements in the control and operational systems, and a better thermal energy storage system. Abengoa estimates that this power station will save 12,000 tons of Carbon Dioxide from entering the atmosphere. This power station takes the amount of solar electricity in Spain to 3000 Mega Watts, making that country one of the world leaders in this field. Spanish solar power companies such as Abengoa Solar are rapidly making a big impact on the international solar power market.
3 May 2009
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