Inthe west of the city Seville in Spain, a sea of giant mirrors is reflecting th-组卷网

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In the west of the city Seville in Spain, a sea of giant mirrors is reflecting the sun’s energy to provide “concentrated solar power (CSP)” while brightening the path to a new wave of green energy projects.

The 624 carefully positioned mirrors reflect the sun’s heat towards a 50-meter-tall central tower where it is concentrated and used to boil water into steam. The superheated steam is then used to turn a turbine (汽轮机) that can produce up to 11 megawatts of electricity—enough power for 6,000 homes—according to Solucar, the Spanish company that has built the power plant.

The Spanish tower, known as PS10, is the first stage of an ambitious development. By 2025 it is hoped that additional towers will create “a solar farm” with an output of 500 megawatts, which would be enough power for 180,000 homes, almost the entire population of nearby Seville.

CSP produces no greenhouse gases and the only pollution is visual. There is also the possibility that production can keep going around the clock-even when the sun has gone down. Solucar is currently testing technology at a plant near Granada that will pump 50 percent of the electricity generated in the day into the Spanish national grid (国家输电网), and use the other 50 percent to melt salt, which will then act as a kind of battery, storing the sun’s power. When dusk falls, the heat stored in the molten salt can be used to generate power through the night.

The Sahara, the world’s largest desert, has always been seen as a problem. But with large-scale CSP projects, suddenly all that empty space, with its year round clear skies and hot sun, has a value that could transform local economies. It could potentially turn Africa into an exporter of energy to power-hungry Europe.

【小题1】What is the Spanish tower PS10 used to do according to the text?