The solar furnace of Odeillo was put into service in 1970.

[Definition: A solar furnace is a structure used to harness the sun's rays to produce very high temperatures. A solar furnace concentrates solar flux to produce heat (up to 4,000°C) at the focal point. The heat can be used to generate electricity, melt rock or steel or make hydrogen fuel.]

The solar furnace is located in Odeillo in the Pyrénées Orientales - this geographical position guarantees very good weather conditions for this kind of facilities. The total number of sunny hours is 3000h/Year, the hygrometry is very low and the direct solar flux is between 800 w/m2 and 1050 w/m2 for the maximum.

The parabolic reflector gaves at the focal point a maximum flux of 1000 W/cm2. The experimentations takes place at the focal zone (18 m in front of the paraboloid. The range of available temperature is from 800° to 2500 °C (the maximum reachable temperature is 3800 °C) for a maximum thermal power of 1000 kW.

63 heliostats, installed on 8 terraces reflects the sunligth on the parabolic reflector. Every heliostat position is calculated so that the reflected light is parallel to the symetry axis of the paraboloid.

[Source: Wikipedia]

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