Thank you, Engadget, for a story about Israel that doesn't focus on the conflict in the Middle East. (Oh man, did I just ruin it?) This time, Israel is in the spotlight for creating a hybrid solar power plant with many mirrors that heat air that powers a turbine, or something.
Obviously, I have no idea how this works or what it does. Read the article, and I'm not sure you will either. Maybe the article's author knows. But I can tell you one thing - they've got the photo all wrong: there's no way the Israelis are hiring Mel Gibson to watch this for them.*
*Yes, people. I realize it's Photoshopped. But thanks.
It's pretty cool actually.
30 mirrors track the sun during the day (so if the sun is shining, they will be facing it in some manner) and reflect concentrated sunlight onto the big orange "flower".
The sunlight heats up compressed air, which drives an electric turbine.
The cool part, is that if the sun has already set or it's cloudy, the turbines "can be run off of biodiesel, natural gas, or fossil fuels, allowing the plant to operate twenty-four hours."
That means they have clean, free energy when they can, and they're a regular power plant the rest of the time.
Good stuff. ;)
Posted by: Abraham Vegh | June 16, 2009 at 06:10 AM
Cool and good for them. I'll tell you Esther and you probably have heard this rumor already but many clowns here in America claim Jews secretly control it all in the USA. Yeah right. That's why Bush / Cheney and their oil cronies are so in bed with the Saudi Arabs. Any technological advances which might help break such dependency, I'll say in cowboy GW's face "yippie kia yea mother f***er"! (to quote Bruce Willis).
Posted by: Chris M | July 24, 2009 at 06:46 PM