A solar furnace is a structure used to harness the rays of the sun in order to produce high temperatures. This is achieved by using a curved mirror (or an array of mirrors) acting as a parabolic reflector to concentrate light (Insolation) on to a focal point. The temperature at the focal point may reach up to 3,000 degrees Celsius, and this heat can be used to generate electricity, melt steel or make hydrogen fuel.
The solar furnace at Odeillo in the French Pyrenees can reach temperatures up to 3,000 degrees Celsius.
The solar furnace at Odeillo in the Pyrenees of France was opened in 1970 and is the largest in the world. It employs an array of plane mirrors to gather the rays of light from the sun and reflects them on to a larger curved mirror. The rays are focused on to an area the size of a cooking pot and can reach up to 3,000 degrees Celsius.
The first modern solar furnace is believed to have been built in France in 1949 by Professor Félix Trombe. It is still in place at Mont Louis, near to Odeillo. The Pyrenees were chosen as the site for these furnaces due to the weather being sunny for up to 300 days a year.
It has been suggested that solar furnaces could be used in space to provide energy for manufacturing purposes, although their reliance on sunny weather means that they are unlikely to be used as a major source of renewable energy on Earth.
The principle of the solar furnace may have been known in ancient times. During the Second Punic War (218 - 202 BC), the Greek scientist Archimedes is said to have repelled the attacking Roman ships by setting them on fire with a "burning glass" that may have been array of mirrors. An experiment to test this theory was carried out by a group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2005. It concluded that although the theory was sound, the mirrors would have been unlikely to produce sufficient power to set a ship on fire under battle conditions.
The principle of the solar furnace has also been used to make solar powered barbecues.
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