China has reportedly developed the world’s first dual-tower solar thermal plant near Guazhou County in Gansu Province to enhance efficiency and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
To achieve that, power company China Three Gorges Corporation claims to have combined two adjacent heat-absorbing towers sharing a steam turbine generator. Nearly 30,000 heliostat mirrors are installed on the towers, covering an 800,000-square-meter light-collecting area.The two towers, each 200 meters tall, have mirrors that form two vast, overlapping circles.
“The mirrors in the overlapping area can be utilized by either tower. This configuration is expected to enhance efficiency by 24 percent,”The mirrors track the sun’s movement, concentrating its rays on the eastern tower in the morning and automatically adjusting westward in the afternoon.