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It doesn't seem optimal to put them in a circular formation like that, though. From wherever the sun hits, some panels will be hit from the side and the light w
by jolmg 7y ago
It doesn't seem optimal to put them in a circular formation like that, though. From wherever the sun hits, some panels will be hit from the side and the light will miss the panel completely. It looks cool, but it doesn't seem realistic.
- duckymcduckface 7y agoThose are concentration mirror, they reflect light onto the spire in the middle which had a receiving element at the top. Conventially they're used for thermal application where you use the sun to generate steam at the top of the tower, although there has been research into beam down variants where the light is reflected down to a very high efficiency PV cell.
- VBprogrammer 7y agoElaborating slightly, this works because some types of solar panels can be overloaded by several orders of magnitude so long as the panel temperature is kept low enough.
- LeoPanthera 7y agoI believe those are mirrors, not solar panels. They're reflecting the light onto a solar power tower: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_tower https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_tower Here's a real one: https://ths.rwth-aachen.de/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/gemasolar.jpg https://ths.rwth-aachen.de/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/gemaso...
- ars 7y agoStrange that they put mirrors on maybe 1/6 of the land. I'm sure they have a reason, but I wonder what it is?
- viraptor 7y agoTo prevent mirrors shading each other. If you look at the upper part of the photo, it's almost a uniform mirror from this point of view. But if you look at the bottom, there's lots of spaces. The overlap/spacing is likely optional for reaching the tower.