Plataforma Solar de Almería
Encyclopedia
History
It was founded in the early 1980s and run by the centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT), its location is on the edge of the Tabernas DesertTabernas Desert
The Tabernas Desert is a desert in Spain. It is located in the province of Almería about north of the capital, Almería, in the Tabernas municipality...
in the Spanish province of Almería.
Testing
Over 20,000 m² of mirrors are installed on a 100 acre (0.404686 km²) site. There are several techniques tested under practical conditions, mainly solar thermal power plants. Hydrosol-2Hydrosol-2
HYDROSOL is series of European Union funded projects for the promotion of renewable energy...
is a solar power tower
Solar power tower
The solar power tower is a type of solar furnace using a tower to receive the focused sunlight. It uses an array of flat, movable mirrors to focus the sun's rays upon a collector tower...
and a set of heliostat
Heliostat
A heliostat is a device that includes a mirror, usually a plane mirror, which turns so as to keep reflecting sunlight toward a predetermined target, compensating for the sun's apparent motions in the sky. The target may be a physical object, distant from the heliostat, or a direction in space...
s to collect the solar thermal energy
Solar thermal energy
Solar thermal energy is a technology for harnessing solar energy for thermal energy . Solar thermal collectors are classified by the United States Energy Information Administration as low-, medium-, or high-temperature collectors. Low-temperature collectors are flat plates generally used to heat...
.