Israel’s 150kw Solar Pond

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Ormat's solar pond takes up about as much surface area as a large farm pond and provides 150 kilowatts of power.
Ormat's solar pond takes up about as much surface area as a large farm pond and provides 150 kilowatts of power.
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The heat exchangers, Rankine-cycle power plant, and electrical generation equipment remains above ground for easy access.
The heat exchangers, Rankine-cycle power plant, and electrical generation equipment remains above ground for easy access.
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Diagram demonstrates how the Rankine cycle uses warm salty water and cool  freshwater in an evaporation and condensation process to drive a generator.
Diagram demonstrates how the Rankine cycle uses warm salty water and cool  freshwater in an evaporation and condensation process to drive a generator.

In 1980, one of MOTHER EARTH NEWS’ technical editors and her tour director returned from a wonderfully informative ten-day solar tour of Israel jointly sponsored by Jordan College, Solar Age magazine, and THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS. The trip was intended to both entertain and educate … and judging from the enthusiastic response of the tour group, it fully succeeded on both counts!

One of the most impressive sights of the entire excursion was a small power-generating station located at the southern end of the Dead Sea… where a considerable amount of electricity is being produced using solar energy. You might well assume that the plant operates on photovoltaics, but–if that’s what you’re thinking–you’ll have to guess again. The new power-generating facility is a solar pond … inexpensive, often naturally occurring phenomena that may just hold the secret to a safe and reliable middle-technology form of energy production!

Needless to say, MOTHER EARTH NEWS is very interested in any power system that delivers a lot for a little. So–in addition to reporting on what we saw in Israel–we fully intend to research, first hand, the possibility of scaling down both the size and technology of the operation … in order to put it on the “little guy’s” level, and maybe open up a whole new world of energy independence for us all!

As anyone who’s worked with solar energy knows, one of the major stumbling blocks to a successful “sun” system is the difficulty of obtaining effective heat storage, regardless of whether the collection medium is air or liquid. (With a fluid system, the problem is further compounded by the fact that leakage may be disastrous, and equipment costs can be prohibitive.) What’s more, solar setups of any kind require collectors … which can often mean additional expense and headaches.

So it makes sense that any solar energy system which does away with collectors and storage tanks has an obvious advantage over the more common techniques. The question is, how can a solar power operation get by without what are usually thought of as the two most important components? And the answer is … by using a saline pond. Yes, believe it or not, technicians from Ormat Turbines, Ltd.–an Israel-based manufacturer of Rankine-cycle drive turbines–have developed a system which uses heat that’s gathered and stored in a pool of salt water to generate up to 150 kilowatts of electrical power!

  • Published on May 1, 1980
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