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Solar flower tower

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AORA's Solar "Flower" Tower is an innovative hybrid power generator which utilize solar and alternative fuels, including diesel fuel, natural gas, liquefied natural gas, biogas, and other biofuels, to provide a constant green power source targeted for a community-sized production. A module, dubbed the "solar flower" due to the fact that it looks like a golden yellow tulip creates about 100 kW of electricity. The basis of the design is to use solar heated compressed air to spin a micro-gas turbine. What makes the micro-gas turbine unique is the efficiency of smaller power blocks. This allows you to construct the entire project on a smaller scale, meaning simpler operation and less land needed to build on. Since it's quick to build, overhead expense will be far less than building other larger power stations. In a small period of time, you can start generating revenue.

AORA

Formerly known as EDIG Solar, AORA is an Israeli based company who develops solar-hybrid power generators. They offer a unique, environmentally friendly solution to an uninterrupted power generation source, unlike most solar generators that outputs their power during daylight only. The EDIG group of companies has contracted engineering project with organizations such as Ministry of Defense (Israel), El Al Israel Airlines, and the National Health Service Provider. EDIG presently has a relationship with the Weizmann Institute of Science, providing engineering services for the past two decades. It was at the Weizmann Institute of Science where the solar thermal technology was developed. After the technology was licensed to EDIG, continued advancement was developed until they decided to turned their new solar division into a sub-company, EDIG Solar, now known as AROA.

How the Solar Tower Works

In half an acre of land (that's about 40% of a football field), a Solar Tower module is surrounded by thirty heliostats reflecting the sun ray into a special solar receiver inside the module. The receiver heats the the air to about 1,000°C and sent into the micro-gas turbine to create electricity.

Main Advantage

Quoting from http://www.aora-solar.com/len/apage/40751.php

Modularity enables each base unit to be located independently with no need to allocate one large, flat, contiguous expanse of land for the whole power station. This offers great flexibility in finding suitable installation sites, as well as the benefits of scalability, where such a venture can be scaled at a later date, as required. Being modular also means offering greater reliability since servicing any of the single base units, does not require a complete shutdown of the whole system (in comparison to alternative designs that use a single large-scale power block). Having a hybrid operating system (solar/fuel/biofuel) means that power can be generated via alternative fuel sources. Operating on such a mix means that power can be supplied around the clock.