Traveling is not yet back to normal. But getting out there and looking for something special to share with you all. Not sure how many of you know about this structure but a solar energy harvesting structure gathering one MegaWatt is not yet that common, even in 2022.
In 1970 opened the Odeillo solar furnace, the world's largest solar furnace of its kind to this date. Located in Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via, in the mountains of the Pyrénées in the south of France.
Sidebar
For you living in the united states, you may know the Solar towers of the Ivanpah facility in the Mojave Desert, southeastern California. Today (in 2022) this represents the world's largest solar thermal power station using 173,500 heliostats. which is almost crazy to comprehend.
But let's stay in France for this article
Once you stand in front of it you will feel so small.
With its 54m (177 ft) in height and 48m (157 ft) width and its shape almost leaning over your head it's pretty intimidating yet astonishing.
The Odeillo solar furnace was built between 1962 and 1968 and started operating in 1969. It serves as a science research site studying materials at very high temperatures.
To gather all the solar energy 63 heliostats are used to direct the sun into the major dish. The mirrors on the main building are called the concentrators. These are designed in a parabola and converge the energy into a circular target, 40 cm in diameter, on top of the central tower.
Within a few seconds temperatures above 2,500 °C (4,530 °F) can be achieved there.
We did not see this in operation but it would be super cool to see oneself.
When you approach the area you will be amazed by the location of the Odeillo solar furnace. It is placed high in the Pyrénées mountains. Seeing it with snow-sprinkled mountain tops around makes it so nice. This is a photograph taken from within a moving car so we apologize for the low quality.
The Wikipedia page has another great illustration of the used principle of the structure. While we were visiting all the mirrors were in a seemingly standard default position not to direct sun into the dish. As you can see it was overcast and not sunny.
Here once again the principle of the installation.
All heliostats consist of a total of 9600 sub mirrors.
A very nice French gentleman allowed us to walk around and see all the other experiments. You can see a few panels explaining the other exhibits and structures like the Euro Dish.
You can see this is now designed for training and education. It already feels like a museum. "The early times of Solar Energy"
There are multiple smaller solar dishes that seem to concentrate the solar energy like a satellite dish. It seems before creating the large structure multiple smaller experiments were conducted as a proof of concept. The remains of these experiments are placed all over the property as exhibits.
It's a bit sad to see that some of them have been damaged. whatever the cause it would be nice to see them in better shape.
The power of our sun concentrated on a concrete block. There is no further information on this experiment but one can speculate.
It's tricky to get information on what's going on now at the facility. The property is easily accessible and one can walk around. The main building is gated so one can not enter to ask questions. So as an institute it seems not open to the public. However, it is still possible to visit the open-air facilities. At least as you can see the cows roaming around freely.
As the sun sets the fog is coming. When the lights are turned on the main dish starts to glow. So if you are in the area it's a simple stop and an impressive structure to see.
