In the UAE built the largest thermal solar power plant

Yesterday the largest solar power station built in the UAE was launched. This power plant was called the "Sun-1". Plans for the creation of the station came from the Arabs back in 2010, when not so many people believed in the possibility of creating a "solar" station with a capacity of 100 MW. However, the object was built and commissioned. The implementation was carried out by the companies Masdar, Total and the Arab government.

The total area of ​​the station’s solar panels is about 2.5 square kilometers, which is quite a lot. The station is located in Abu Dhabi. Note that the total number of parabolic reflectors is 258048. This is, so to speak, a thermal power plant, because instead of photocells, a system of reflectors and a pipeline is used, through which a fluid (some kind of specific oil) is driven. The liquid heats up (up to about 393 degrees Celsius), and transfers heat to the heat exchanger (the total temperature here is about 380 degrees Celsius). It produces water vapor, which in turn is supplied to the turbines. Well, the turbines, rotating, generate electricity.
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The question may arise about how reliable the work of the reflectors is - after all, their dusting and sanding will significantly reduce the efficiency of the station. The developers have created a special cleaning system that completely goes through the cycle of cleaning reflectors for 10 days (every night about 10% of the total area of ​​reflectors is washed).

Interestingly, in Abu Dhabi, such a system may be most useful, since the peak loads on the power grid here are during the day when all air conditioners are turned on (and there are hundreds of thousands of them). The capacity of the station is enough to provide electricity to 170 thousand average private houses. Well, and if where to build similar stations, just in the UAE.

Via treehugger