Article

This is an original article as printed in the Guardian Weekly which is suitable for advanced comprehension classes written by Alok Jha.

Solar towers harness sunshine of southern Spain

In the desert of southern Spain, 32km outside Seville, more than 1,000 mirrors have been carefully positioned. Each is about half the size of a tennis court and when they dtart operating soon it will mark a major moment in the quest for renewable energy.

The mirrors are part of the world's biggest solar tower plant, a technology that reflects sunlight to super-heat water at a central tower. One the $100m plant is inaugurated, it will generate 20MW of electricity, enough to power 11,000 homes.

Concentrated solar power (CSP) technology, as it is known, is een by many as a simpler, cheaper and more efficient way to harness the sun's energy than other methods such as photovoltais (PV) panels. But CSP only works in places with clear skies and strong sunshine.

The Andalucian deserts are an ideal location, and Spain hopes the PS20 plant will enable it to take advantage of its huge solar resource.

"The radiation hitting the earth is 10,000 times the consumption of energy," said José Domingues Abascal, chief technology officer at Abengoa, the Spanish energy company that is behind the establishment of the plant. "There is great potential in solar energy."

Abengoa has already built a smaller version of the tower technology to test that the idea works. The 11MW PS10 system has been generating electrivity for almost two years. Its new design uses an area larger than 100 football pitches, with 1,255 mirrors, called heliostats. These track the sun as it moves through the day and reflect the energy to the top of a 160-metre tower. Here, the concentrated light is used to heat the water to more than 1,000C, producing steam that can turn an electricity generating turbine.

When switched on, the new plant will be the world's largest commercial CSP plant, feeding the electricity into the national grid.

Spanish companies are charging ahead with CSP: more than 50 solar projects around Spain have been approved for construction by the government and, by 2015, the country will generate more than 2GW of power from CSP.

"CSP is at the very beginning of a big bool," said José Luis Garcia, at Greenpeace in Spain. "Spain [can] develop the technology. We have the sun, so we are in the best position to lead in this field."

Glossary

to inaugurate something

(verb) to officially open a new building or development

to harness something

(verb) to use the strength of something to produce power

natioinal grid

(noun) a system of electric wires sending power over a big area

boom

(noun) a period when something suddenly becomes very successful and popular

Questions

The questions below are divided into three groups - before, during and after reading the above article.

Before reading

What alternative ways of generating power are found in your country?

1. solar power
2. wind power
3. geothermal power
4. hydroelectric power
5. tidal power

Which of these will become more popular in the future? Why?

Look at the headline, picture and caption. Discuss these questions -

1. What has been built in southern Spain
2. Why do you think southern Spain has been chosen for this project?
3. Look at the picture. How do you think the system might work?

While reading

Complete the questions below with the following words. Use each word only once. Then read the first four paragraphs of the article and find the answers.

1. ___ in Spain is the new power plant?
2. ___ big is each mirror?
3. ___ will the mirrors begin to operate?
4. ___ exactly do the mirrors do?
5. ___ money did the new plant cost?
6. ___ is CSP better thasn using photovoltaic panels?

Read the rest of the article from paragraph five onwards. Decide if the following sentences are true or false. Correct the false sentences.

1. The amount of radiation that hits the earth is less than our energy consumption.
2. The energy company has a smaller working version of the plant.
3. You could put 100 football pitches on to the area covered by the new plant.
4. The tall tower at the plant is called a heliostat.
5. Water in the tower is heated to over 1,000C, which produces steam to turn a turbine.
6. The new plant will be the second largest commercial plant of its kind in the world.
7. More than 50 solar projects have already been built in Spain.
8. Garcia believes that Spain will be a leader in this field of technology.

Note taking and summarising - imagine that you want to tell a friend about this news story. Make brief notes about the new plant under thes headings -

• Location and size:
• Number and location of mirrors:
• How many homes it can power:
• How much it cost:
• How the technology works:

Work with a partner. Take it in turns to tell each other the news story but include two factual mistakes. Give eachother feedback at the end about -

1. the mistakes that were identified.
2. how fluent the speaker was.
3. how interesting the speaker made the story.

After reading

References What do the high-lighted words in the extracts below refer to in the article? Paragraph numbers are given in parentheses.

1. Each is about half the size of a tennis court ... (1)
2. ... it will generate 20MW of eletricity ... (2)
3. ... Spain hopes the PS20 plant will enable it to take advantage ... (4)
4. Abengoa has already built a version ... to test that the idea works. (6)
5. These track the sun as it moves through the day ... (6)
6. Here, the concentrated light is used to heat water ... (6)

Synonyms Look for synonyms for those words in the first six paragraphs. Find the word that runs down through all the words.

1. very big
2. to mirror something
3. factory; power station
4. a long search
5. to follow something
6. a place (where something is)
7. to warm something up
8. perfect