What is this ?

[kerberos]

Hi all,

does anyone knows, what this large plant is ?

There is another one about 10 miles east of this one.

Thanks.

[kerberos]

Hi all,

does anyone knows, what this large plant is ?

There is another one about 10 miles east of this one.

Thanks.


Another question. What is this ?

Located at the Vancouver Island. For me it looks like some bunkers.

[Captain Hornblower]

Hi all,

does anyone knows, what this large plant is ?

There is another one about 10 miles east of this one.

Thanks.
Solar plant...

[Captain Hornblower]

Another question. What is this ?

Located at the Vancouver Island. For me it looks like some bunkers.
CFB Esquimalt ammunition facility...

[Archimedes]

Solar plant...

If it's a solar plant, and it's in northern hemisphere, it should face South (To get more solar radiation), but it's faced West.

I'm not saying it's NOT a solar plant...
I'm questioning the arrangement of it.

[Gandolf]

A concentrating solar power plant at Kramer Junction in Boron, California.

http://www.nrel.gov/csp/solar_powerplant.html

[Munden]

If it's a solar plant, and it's in northern hemisphere, it should face South (To get more solar radiation), but it's faced West.

I'm not saying it's NOT a solar plant...
I'm questioning the arrangement of it.

The sun isn't so far south that the panels have to point strongly due south. The majority of the sun's motion in the sky is east to west, which is why the panels are oriented in that direction. This way the entire line of them can rotate with the sun and it's probably easier to keep them from casting shadows on either other.

I found a PDF with some pictures too. :)
http://www.eere.energy.gov/troughnet/pdfs/cable_frier_calexpr.pdf

[Archimedes]

The sun isn't so far south that the panels have to point strongly due south. The majority of the sun's motion in the sky is east to west, which is why the panels are oriented in that direction. This way the entire line of them can rotate with the sun and it's probably easier to keep them from casting shadows on either other.

I found a PDF with some pictures too. :)
http://www.eere.energy.gov/troughnet/pdfs/cable_frier_calexpr.pdf

A good tip about the inclination of a FIXED angle solar array is the latitude + 15º, and facing true North (at Southern hemisphere), or true South (at Northern hemisphere, like the array in discussion).

This plant, appearantly, is a east-west tracker, like you're saying.

Probably the gain of the tracking system is greater then the loss of the wrong angle (It should be 35º+15º=50º).

Other tracking systems could be angled, like this one I've mounted here in Brasil: http://alvaro.lima.vieira.50megs.com/images/track4.jpg , but it have only room for 4 solar panels of 100Wp (This model I've mounted).
OBS: This photo is the pre-mounting, not the definitive place... :D
(But I prefer the fixed angle models ;) )

[SSSALVI]

The plant consists of an array of solar collectors arranged in lines which is N-S direction.

But each line has a set of parabolic collectors which can track the sun and each of these collectors moves on a pivot which is in N-S direction so that the actual collector moves( rotates ) along the sun from East in morning to West in Evening.

Finally it boils down to the fact that the actual collectors are moving from East to west but they have been arranged in N-S lines.

What Archimedes is talking are the simple flat panel solar water heaters used for household purposes where the solar illumination is not very efficient but is sufficient for simple water heating. Yes, they have to face the South in Northern Hemisphere.

This plant is for power generation so it has to be efficient so it is a tracking type. Link in Gandolf post is very informative

Shashi