Spanish Tulip Hybrid Solar Power System

12/04/2012

An unconventionally-shaped hybrid solar power tower system has just been planted in a Spanish city.

Israeli firm AORA's flower-like Tulip design stands 115 feet above the ground and draws on solar energy to manufacture electricity. Its development programme was initiated over 20 years ago and, in 2009, a pilot system was put into operation in Israel.

Now, the project's expanded and the Spanish Tulip hybrid solar power system was finished at the start of 2012.

Tulip Solar System

The first international Tulip solar system, it's located in Almeria and features an array of 52 heliostatic mirrors, directed towards the tower. These vector solar rays onto the tower's bulb, mounted on the top.

As a result, the air inside the bulb heats up to a maximum point of 1,000 degrees centigrade and it's used to power a turbine generator, which produces enough electricity for up to 80 domestic residences.

As a hybrid system, the AORA Tulip differs from a standard photovoltaic set-up in that it can run off fuel - natural gas, biogas or biodiesel - as well as solar power. That allows it to function around the clock, whereas older solar energy systems are restricted to daylight hours.

There's further innovation associated with the Tulip solar system, too. Besides electricity, the station also manufactures 170 Kilowatts of heat and that's fed to a local desalination product. Its narrow structure and carefully-arranged mirror array means it occupies a smaller ground area - less than half an acre - than older technologies of this kind and its power and heat outputs are intended to surpass those of all other in-service solar energy systems.

Tulip Hybrid Solar

The Spanish Tulip hybrid solar system took around seven months in total to construct and it has a minimum projected lifespan of 25 years. From here on in, AORA intends to set-up additional Tulip plants at other sites in different countries.

"We are very excited to complete construction on our second power station, and we look forward to demonstrating our unique ability to provide our customers with uninterrupted, 24/7 clean-power", the Chief Executive Officer of AORA, Zev Rosenzweig, explained in a recent company press release.

"Our technology and scalable solution can be easily customized for a variety of applications and environments and I believe this demonstration unit will be quickly followed by additional installations in Spain and around the world, another way Israeli creativity helps humanity."

By LM

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