Odeillo solar furnace
Horno solar de Odeillo
- Date
- 1970 · confidence high
- Place
- Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via, Pyrénées-Orientales, France
- Credited to
- Félix Trombe and CNRS
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
A field of heliostats reflects light onto a parabolic mirror 54 m high, concentrating 1 MW of power to above 3,500 °C. It is the largest solar furnace in the world.
Trombe built a first furnace at Mont-Louis in 1949; Odeillo was inaugurated in 1970 and is still in operation.
What it led to
- very-high-temperature materials research
- solar tower power plants
- solar hydrogen research