The world's largest solar furnace

The world's largest solar furnace is built in France, which is the basis of application in scientific research activities.

The Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via, or simply Odeillo, is a commune located in the Pyrenees, near the Spanish border in the south of France.Odeillo is one of the sunniest places in the world.

With over 3,500 hours of sunshine a year, Odeillo is chosen as the world's largest solar furnace construction site.The solar furnace at Odeillo was built by the French National Center for Scientific Research (NSRC) in 1969.

Around the building is a system of 63 heliumostatic mirrors mounted around the hillside, similar to the ladder.Large concave mirror, specially designed on the front of the building, will absorb sunlight and generate heat.Heat gathering place with temperature up to 3,500 degrees C.

The parabolic mirror is mounted from 10,000 small mirrors and covers 2,000m ² .

The mirror reflects the hillside, absorbs sunlight and reflects on a large mirror.

Solar furnaces are used by NSRC in research activities of heat transfer systems, energy conversion and the state of high temperature fuels.These are the areas of special interest in the aerospace industry.