The wind isn't always blowing. The tides aren't always changing. The Sun isn't always shining. However, a solar plant in Spain has implemented technology which will let it overcome this problem and produce power for 24 hours continuously.
It uses the Power Tower design, where a centrally located tower is surrounded by a field of mirrors in concentric circles that concentrate the Sun's heat onto the boiler on the tower, which produces steam which in turn fires a turbine. Now all this is completely ordinary for a solar power, however the factor separating out this plant from the rest is that it uses molten salt as a heat transfer fluid. This allows for the storage and generation of electricity even after the Sun goes down.
The 19.9 MW Gemasolar(as it is named) Plant boasts of a production of about 118 GWh of energy per year compared to the meagrely 40 GWh generated by the 21.2 MW Solarpark Calaveron plant. This is a step in the right direction for renewable energy technology.
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