A pyramid-scale solar power plant is well under way in Kuraymat, Egypt, and the 150 megawatt giant could prove to be a key indicator for the success of a much larger project such as the pharaohs could only dream of. That would be the international DESERTEC solar power network, which would rim northern Africa with solar and wind power plants capable of supplying solar energy to European markets. It’s an ambitious plan that rests on two key elements – the ability to collect solar energy on a massive scale, and the ability to transmit it.
As reported in Energy Boom, the Kuraymat plant will tackle the collection half of the equation. It will consist of 2,000 solar collectors covering 130,000 square meters. A solar thermal facility, it is designed to collect solar energy in the form of heat rather than directly converting it to electricity as is the case with photovoltaic cells.