February 1, 2025, 6:17 am | Read time: 3 minutes
One of the most unusual power plants in the world is located in the Cerdanya region in the south of France. The solar furnace in Odeillo is like a giant mirror that uses incident sunlight to generate energy. Temperatures of more than 3000 degrees Celsius can occur. The furnace has been connected to the grid since 1977 and is still the largest of its kind in the world.
In the French Pyrenees, close to the border with Spain, you can find one of the most unusual power plants in the world. A veritable monster of a building, the sight of which is likely to make many people rub their eyes in disbelief. This is because the Odeillo solar furnace is basically a gigantic, eight-story-high mirror that is used to concentrate incoming sunlight and generate energy. It is the first of its kind in the world and it is still the largest and most powerful today, although it was originally built for other purposes.
According to the tourism website of the border region of Cerdanya, the dimensions of the Odeillo solar furnace are enormous. The solar thermal power plant is 54 meters high, 48 meters wide and supplies 1000 kilowatts of electricity. By way of comparison, when the plant was connected to the grid in 1977, it generated just 60 kilowatts. An increase of almost twentyfold since then. Electricity generation was a minor matter, especially in its early years, and the bizarre building was used more as a research station. It still serves this function today.
Tests for Space Research
According to Deutschlandfunk, scientists initially used the Odeillo solar furnace primarily for material experiments. Among other things, they wanted to simulate the re-entry conditions of rockets from space into the earth’s atmosphere. However, when the global oil crisis began in 1973, the decision was made to use the solar thermal power plant to generate energy in the future. And this has been so successful since then that similar projects have been set up all over the world. Today, there are more than one hundred of these plants around the globe.
The secret of the Odeillo solar furnace’s success is above all its location. In the Pyrenees region where it is located, the sun shines for up to 3,000 hours a year. The technology behind the mega construction is also highly developed and has been continuously improved over the decades. And this is how it works: The sunlight is captured by 63 large mirrors and thrown onto the front of the building, which is also mirrored. This in turn acts as a reflector and concentrates the energy onto a small spot in a connected laboratory, with a diameter of merely 80 centimeters.
With 3 recipes Maca, the sex tuber from Peru
Those who get involved in the "ReGen Village" will pay less rent The revolutionary idea behind this village of the future
Created by a natural disaster This German city sits on 72,000 tons of diamonds
The Heat Can Melt Metal
This can generate temperatures of well over 3000 degrees Celsius. This heat is then used to vaporize water, which in turn drives a turbine that generates the coveted electricity. The enormous heat can melt metal without any problems. Since its commissioning, Odeillo’s solar melting furnace has provided important insights into how such power plants can be built and used as effectively as possible. And such plants could indeed make an important contribution to climate protection in the future.
Experts estimate that up to 10 percent of the world’s energy requirements could be produced by solar thermal power plants in the future. Incidentally, the idea of concentrating solar radiation is by no means new. It was already known in ancient Greece. According to Atlas Obscura, the mathematician Archimedes used sunlight concentrated in mirrors to set fire to an entire fleet of enemy Roman ships. Despite Odeillo’s solar melting furnace being highly advanced nearly 50 years after its commissioning, and even being listed in the Guinness World Records, such utilization is not feasible in Germany. Unfortunately, the sun rarely shines here.