In Israeli desert, world’s highest solar tower looks to future
Source: Times of Israel
Ashalim Tower will stand twice as tall as overseas competitors and will receive reflected light from a field of 55,000 mirrors straddling a million square meters
AFP – In the middle of southern Israel’s desert, engineers are hard at work building the world’s tallest solar tower, reflecting the country’s high hopes for renewable energy.
Once completed in late 2017, the Ashalim Tower will rise to 240 meters (787 feet), taller than Paris’s Montparnasse Tower and London’s Gherkin, according to the Israeli government and the consortium building it.
Covered in stainless steel, the square tower in the rocky Negev desert with a peak resembling a giant lighthouse will be visible from dozens of kilometers (miles) away.
A field of mirrors covering 300 hectares (740 acres) — the size of more than 400 football pitches — will stretch out from its base, directing sunlight toward the tower’s peak to an area called the boiler, which looks like a giant lightbulb.
Read more: http://www.timesofisrael.com/in-israeli-desert-worlds-highest-solar-tower-looks-to-future/