Last Monday I heard a fascinating talk by Santiago Arias, the technical director of Torresol Energy, which runs the new 19.9MW Gemasolar 24hr solar power plant.

From Torresol’s website:

Gemasolar is the first commercial-scale plant in the world to apply central tower receiver and molten salt heat storage technology. The relevance of this plant lies in its technological uniqueness, since it opens up the way for new thermosolar electrical generation technology.

Characteristics of Gemasolar:

• Rated electrical power: 19.9 MW
• Net electrical production expected: 110 GWh/year
• Solar field: 2,650 heliostats on 185 hectares
• Heat storage system: the molten salt storage tank permits independent electrical generation for up to 15 hours without any solar feed.

The seminar was hosted by Beyond Zero Emisisons and the slides and more information are available here. Well worth a look.

Another Melbourne University seminar that looks interesting this Wednesday is on ‘The Future of Solar Power in Australia‘.  There’s a bit of a theme here!

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