In October 2017, an article in GreenTech Media suggested that eSolar ceased business in late 2016. ESolar's design used large numbers of small mirrors (1.14 m²), to reduce costs for installing mounting systems such as concrete, steel, drilling, and cranes. In 2007, companies such as ESolar (then backed by ) were developing cheap, low maintenance, mass producible heliostat components that were to reduce costs in the near future. In 2021, the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) estimated cost of electricity from concentrated solar with 10 hours of storage at $0.076/kWh in 2021, $0.056/kWh in 2030, and $0.052/kWh in 2050. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. These designs also allow power to be generated when the sun is not shining. These working fluids have high heat capacity, which can be used to store the energy before using it to boil water to drive turbines.

Newer designs using liquid sodium have been demonstrated, and systems using molten salts (40% potassium nitrate, 60% sodium nitrate) as the working fluids are now in operation. Concentrated solar thermal is seen as one viable solution for renewable, pollution-free energy.Įarly designs used these focused rays to heat water, and used the resulting steam to power a turbine. It uses an array of flat, movable mirrors (called heliostats) to focus the sun's rays upon a collector tower (the target). Bottom: The THEMIS solar power tower in the Eastern Pyrenees, France (left) and the German experimental Jülich tower (right)Ī solar power tower, also known as 'central tower' power plant or ' heliostat' power plant, is a type of solar furnace using a tower to receive focused sunlight.Middle: PS10, the world's first commercial solar power tower in Andalusia, Spain.

Top: Solar towers of the Ivanpah facility, the world's largest solar thermal power station in the Mojave Desert, southeastern California.

For other tall structures used for electricity power generation, see Energy tower (disambiguation). For the astronomical instrument and other uses of the term, see solar tower (disambiguation). This article is about a particular design of Solar thermal energy using mirrors.

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