An Indian Hospital Instals World’s Largest Solar Concentrator

Here’s a news item about a hospital in India installing a large solar concentrator that helps in generating steam to cook 2000 meals a day and also sterilize hospital equipment.

What is a solar concentrator?

Solar concentrators, also called solar thermal concentrators or concentrating solar thermal, represent a technology that uses the concentration of sunlight to produce a temperature much higher than what traditional solar water heaters can.

Solar concentration is achieved through mirrors or lenses that concentrate sunlight to a small area that results in a high temperature at that region. Some large-scale, sophisticated concentrated solar thermal systems have shown to generate temperatures upwards of 500 degrees C.

Interestingly, many of us would have used solar concentration as children – do you recall using a lens that concentrated sunlight enough to burn the paper placed underneath?