«On your right Gemasolarthe most efficient solar system in the world ». For a strange joke of fate, the tourist guide who is scoring us between and-andalusia places, it’s called “Light». And here, in the area of the planet with the greater sunburity, there is a lot of light. Perhaps too much, considering that the blackout that yesterday paralyzed Spain seems to have been caused by an “overload” that would have sent the “brains” short -circuit which supervises the provision of the energy generated in these parts essentially thanks to the so -called “clean energy”.
But the site of Fuentes de Andalucìa (Seville) It is something that, even at the “scenographic” level, goes beyond the normal panorama to which we simple users of the “renewables” based on wind turbines in the countryside and photovoltaic panels mounted on the roofs are used. Here, however, the scenario is by science fiction films. A monstrously dystopian horizon that presents the placid glitter of a lake from afar but which approaching shows its true hyper -technological nature: a sea of mirrors. Exactly 2500 eli each with an area of 92 square meters arranged in a circle within a radius of 185 hectares. An incandescent mosaic that captures the power of the god Helios and reflects it on a central tower of white salt (salts of sodium nitrates and potassium fusi) 140 meters high: an obelisk with an incandescent tip which, thanks to a “reflective area of 240 thousand square meters” ensures electricity at 30 thousand homes. The technicians explain: “The storage tank is able to store 600 MWh of energy and allows you to produce energy even at night and on cloudy days”. For the enormous heat emission, the airspace is inhibited to the flight routes, and we are not only talking about the jets but also of the birds that are held far away to not end roasted.
«Active since 2011, Gemasolar was carried out on a project by Carlo Rubbia After Italy had given up on the plan for technical problems, “explains the tourist guide. What “technical problems”? Mainly high costs; inadequate spaces (tests had been performed in Sardinia and Puglia) to host a site with cyclopean dimensions; Climatic characteristics not comparable to those of the “fire band” of Andalusia where temperatures far exceed those of other European countries.
A burning heat that enriches Spain with an energy surplus for 365 days a year. Net of blackout like yesterday’s. When the machines, free of current, “rebelled” to men. Evidently, of the “three laws of robotics” of Asimov …