18 September 2015 / leggypeggy

Now for a hit of French science—big science

energy, Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via, mirrors, mountains, Pyrenees, research, science, ski resort, solar furnace, sun

What is it? A performance stage? A mirror for skiers?

Lately I’ve done a few posts about France and her art, so I figured it was time to do one about France and her science.

I’ve always known that France has a rich science history, but I never knew it held the world’s record for something big.

Both Poor John and I were gobsmacked to gaze down from our hotel room in the Pyrenees Mountains, near the French–Spanish border, and see a gigantic reflective box, probably about 10 storeys high.

At first I thought it was a large stage for outdoor performances. Poor John is much more imaginative than I am and, given that we were in one of France’s oldest ski resorts, he thought it was the bottom of a ski slope where people could look at (and admire) themselves from three directions as they skied to the bottom.

But the cheery woman at reception (who gave us a room with a view at no extra cost) explained that it was a famous (yeah, we’d never heard of it) solar furnace—the largest in the world.

So there we were in Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via (we’d never heard of it either) with this history-making object just down the hill and around the corner. So we had to visit and take the tour before we drove on to Spain.

smaller mirrors at solar furnace, France

Smaller mirrors collect the first rays of the sun

large mirror structure at solar furnace, France

Rays are then bounced to the gigantic mirror array (see the little car at the bottom left?)

The furnace’s education centre, which has a mix of written, photographic, models and hands-on exhibits, explains that the furnace is not used to generate power for the community.

Instead its 10,000 mirrors bounce the sun’s rays onto a large concave mirror which focuses the enormous amount of sunlight it receives onto an area about the size of a cooking pot.

This, in turn, produces temperatures in excess of 3000°C (or 5430°F) that allow scientists to carry out projects on energy, the environment, materials for use in space and materials of the future.

We read the English booklet, pushed all the buttons, twisted all the dials, watched the video and saw the demonstration of how the sun’s ray’s can start a fire in a nanosecond. It was an hour well spent and admission was cheap.

The solar furnace was built more than 40 years ago and has a smaller ‘sister’, site, Thémis, which we saw by chance later when we drove on to Spain.

Given that we’re talking sun, I can’t resist sharing this recipe for pasta with sun-dried tomatoes.