Archimedes Burning Mirrors Generating Electricity
During the Siege of Syracuse, 214–212 BC, Archimedes was said to have used “burning mirrors” to set fire to a Roman fleet attacking the city. The mirrors focused the rays of the sun and generated enough heat to set ships on fire. Long dismissed as folk-lore, researchers have been able to recreate the “burning mirrors” and have indeed set replica ships ablaze. (See our recent post, Archimedes “Burning Mirrors” and London’s “Walkie Scorchie.”) Now, in the Mojave desert at the Ivanpah Solar Thermal Power Facility, a modern day version of Archimedes “burning mirrors,” is being used to generate electricity in the world’s largest solar thermal power system.
At Ivanpah, more than 300,000 mirrors focus the light of the sun on central generating towers. The solar energy creates steam in the towers to generate electricity. Not quite turning swords into plowshares, Archimedes “burning mirrors” have become electricity generating “heliostats.” Ivanpah, with three energy towers and arrays, is expected to generate 377 MW of power or enough electricity to power 140,000 homes in California.. Ironically, the facility may the first and last of its kind to be built. Since the project began, the cost of solar panels has dropped so dramatically, that solar thermal may no longer be competitive with solar photovoltaic electricity generation.
The sunlight is used to generate steam for the turbines.
Big temperature difference between that and setting a ship on fire.
Think the had something like this in Spain or Portugal a few years back, but its since been shut down. I don’t remember why?
Here is a demonstration of using focused parabolic mirrors to set wood on fire. Everyone agrees that it wasn’t a practical weapon. All one had to do was attack at sunrise to defeat it, but at mid-day, it could have worked.
Archimedes Death Ray Solar Parabolic Mirror burns a fake Roman Ship
No matter if the facility winds up being the last of its kind, it’s still a step in the right direction.
Absolutely.
Ivanpah’s Concentrated Solar Power system, or CSP is exciting, and a Really Big step in the right direction.
Alas, solar Photovoltaic, PV when Heavily subsided, and / or Sourced in China it’s cheap. Think Solyndra (PV) Half a Billion taxpayer dollars down the drain.
Solar Hot Water, HW: think of a garden hose in the sun: It’s a Very Efficient system.
And Solar HW Utilizes a wider spectrum of the sun’s radiation than PV.
Solar HW, does not have the sex appeal of solar PV. However, The efficiencies for Solar HW for swimming pool heaters, and the like are way above solar PV. Jimmy Carter had a Solar HW system installed on the White House roof. Alas, Regan pulled it down.
Wood starts to Burn at 450f, and Cotton starts to burn at 410f. The typical Rankine Cycle has temperatures that are way above these ignition temperatures.
Photo-voltaic cell cost per watt was $76.67 in 1997 and today the cost is $0.73 per watt. PV is getting very close to grid parity.
Yes Rick,
I had solar here install 1997 8 huge panels, cost a fortune, now the panels per square meter produce 10x as many amp /hours. Problem is still the old battery technology. I have a weather eye on that.
Thanks for the article.
Bill
Go Solar Hot Water! It’s Domestic, it’s Efficient and it’s maybe the only source of energy that is not subsidised by the government’s taxpayer’s, You and I. Maybe that’s why no one pushes for solar HW. Except Nobel Laureate, USNA graduate, Nuclear Engineer, POTUS 39, and he even has a submarine SSN-23 bearing his name, and he’s still alive!
Carter even walked into TMI when everyone was running away from that train wreck!