Sunflower Increases Specific Output Of Solar Power Plants!

When someone talks about innovation in solar power installations, the news is very heartening. Mostly, it relates to his/her vision of creating some revolutionary sources of power. There have been attempts in making the #-Link-Snipped-#. Such efforts were also applauded by researchers and environmentalists working in the power sector. Taking a step further, MIT has now tried to add value to the present model of solar plants.

#-Link-Snipped-#
Circular arrangement of mirrors block sunlight in some orbits | Image Credit: Inhabitat.com

Like many other inventions, the source of inspiration for current innovation is of course nature; 'Sunflower' to be more precise. A team of #-Link-Snipped-# working in close coordination with RWTH Aachen University, Germany, has thought of increasing the specific output obtained through a conventional concentrated solar power (CSP) plant. #-Link-Snipped-# is oriented are trying to improve efficiency of CSP situated in desert region of Andalucía, Spain.

The arrangement here is already advanced. The mirrors, technically called as Heliostats surround a central tower. These mirrors, however, blocked most of the sunlight by shading other heliostats. In this way a major chunk of power potential used to be wasted. Aachen University and MIT devised a solution for countering this problem. By developing a computational model of the power project, MIT team divided mirrors into smaller sectors. They then calculated the amount of light that is reflected from each sector. Next the team tried to experiment with various possible arrangements that would make a feasible solution of tapping the non utilized portion of sunlight. At last they settled with an arrangement found in Sun-flowers that help them in catching sunlight efficiently. The scientists arranged mirrors with a mutual angle of 137 degrees. From calculations, it is seen that large cost savings are made this way.

There is power crunch in many countries, even the most developed ones. The power generation achieved by arranging solar panels in the specified arrangements is also necessary because it is able to reduce land requirement. In other words, you can produce same amount of power by utilizing say 80% of present land resource or you can produce 20% more power in same system.

You can also think practically that apart from innovation that took place at Andalucía, there are very few projects which can be implemented within small time frame. Most of them are like generating solar power through #-Link-Snipped-#. Although, talks for this have already started, the actual project might take considerable time. Hence for catering to today's industry's requirements, the 'Sunflower' research appears promising.

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