Solucar Solar Power Station

I was watching a BBC special report today and saw the most remarkable and encouraging presentation of how man has the means to create absolutely clean power in massive amounts right now. The technology already exists. It can and will be improved upon but is now readily available.

Solar power is a completely renewable energy source, for at least the next five billion years or so, and can provide a source of completely clean energy to a world that badly needs it. However, we must hurry to embrace and utilize solar power and other ways, such as wind power generating turbines, of generating electric power or face a series of total disasters caused by global warming.

A Spanish company, Solucar, has opened Europe’s first commercially operating power station using the Sun’s energy. The technology produces electricity at a cost that is about three times more expensive than conventional coal fired plants but the cost is expected to decrease considerably as the technology develops.

Solucar claims that the solar power station generates 11 Megawatts (MW) of electricity without emitting a single puff of greenhouse gas. That is enough to power up to 6,000 homes. As the plant is expanded it is expected to produce power for a population of 600,000.

The solar power plant is fairly simple in concept. A concrete tower that is 377 feet tall has a series of water filled pipes running from the tower’s top to a nearby steam turbine power plant. At the present 600 solar reflecting mirrors are focused on the towers top. The mirrors collect energy from the sun and concentrate it on the tower’s collectors.

The heat that is generated from beaming and focusing the sun’s energy is used to heat the water up to 400 F degrees which provides the steam to drive the turbines.

One challenge is what happens at night?

At the present heat can be stored in tanks and used for an hour or so after sunset. As the technology further develops this time period is expected to increase. The problem is actually not as severe as one might at first think as the solar power plant provides peak power when it is most needed due to the widespread use of air conditioning during hot daytime hours.

Electricity produced by solar power plants in remote sunny places, such as the Sahara desert, can be transmitted long distances to urban areas that consume energy over newly constructed and existing power distribution systems.

Interest in this method of generating clean renewable electric power is widespread, including in the United States. Hopefully, politicians around the world will stand up to the special interest groups, such as the coal mining and oil producing industries , who may well try to delay or prevent the use of such energy producing systems.

We humans indeed do have the brain power to create technologies that can solve most of our climate change challenges. The question is if we have the collective wisdom and political will to tackle the challenges while there is still time to act?

First of all, politicians around the world must acknowledge that there is a problem with global warming and devise streamlined procedures to address it. Conferences, while perhaps useful in educating the participants, will not do the job.

Only the swift passing of legislation that provides the international organizational structure and resources needed by the world’s scientists, engineers, and construction companies, along with sourcing the considerable financing that will be required, will suffice.

Tackling the challenge of global warming head on and taking massive on the ground action, like the Solucar solar energy power project, is the only way the world will avoid serious consequences. Meeting the global warming crisis can provide a tremendous boost to the world economy as new technologies are developed and clean energy projects are put into place.

It is foolish to focus on the costs of the “greening” of the world. We should be focusing on the benefits. We should also realize the costs of doing nothing or very little will be a disaster for humanity on a scale that we can not begin to fully understand.

The time to act it now. The Solucar solar power station is an encouraging step in the right direction.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!