The use of renewable sources of energy such as solar power is on the rise. This is because of reduced costs of power as well as doing as less damage to the environment as possible. Solar power is also a type of renewable energy which will never end. The government has started promoting the building of solar thermal power stations.
These stations help to convert solar energy into electricity which is then distributed to the surrounding cities and towns. There are quite a few solar power stations that already exist. However work is going on in full swing to build many new ones.
The largest solar power station is to be built in Australia and once it is built it is going to be the largest man made structure on earth. A typical solar power station consists of a large number of solar reflectors which are called heliostats. They are placed in a circle around the solar tower. The heliostats direct the energy of the sun towards the base of the solar tower.
The directed heat rises up the tower which in turn runs the attached turbines. The running turbines then produce electricity which is stored for later use. There is a solar power station in Europe that provides electricity to more than 6,000 homes around Seville in Spain. The largest solar power station project in Australia is estimated to provide electricity to almost 100,000 homes.
The architects always take in mind the location of the solar power station. The station has to be naturally built in areas which receive maximum sun energy in the region. Even the size of the place has to be huge. There are many places that have ample space to build the station but they may not have demand in the surrounding areas because of low density of the living people. Though the cost of building a solar power station is on the higher side when compared to the conventional power station, the electricity produced from solar energy can be made available at a much cheaper cost.
At present there is only 600 megawatts of power produced by all solar stations worldwide. But this amount is going to change significantly in the future as more power stations will be built and people will start knowing the important of using safe power. Today there are 14,000 megawatts of solar power stations in the construction phase.
