WSP01480

• File Number: 8271.300
• Description: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program - General Information and Publications-Reports
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 1/1/1981
• Title: Solar Ponds
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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the pond is the collector of thermal energy, with temperatures approaching
900C (1940F) or more. The lower layer also operates as a thermal energy
reservoir that can supply energy at a nearly constant rate day and night,
summer and winter.

SOLAR POND HISTORY

Natural non-convective, salt gradient solar ponds are found allover the

world, One of the most notable is Medve Lake in Hungary. Temperatures of

710C (1600) have been recorded at a depth of 1.2 meters (4 feet) in late

summer and near-saturation salinity of 25% sodium chloride has been recorded

at the bottom. Other naturally occuring solar ponds are located near

Oroville, Washington; Eilat, Israel; on the Venezuelan Antilles; and on

Antarctica under a permanent ice cover.

The idea of building artificial solar ponds, where the conditions could be

controlled, and using the resulting thermal energy for practical purposes,

was suggested by Israeli scientists in the 1950s. Later, the scientists

expanded solar pond theory to include naturally occurring large bodies of

salt water such as the Great Salt Lake and the Dead Sea. They reasoned

that a part of such a lake or sea could be partitioned off for conversion

to a solar pond.

In 1960, an experimental solar pond covering 600 square meters (6300 square

feet) was constructed at the Dead Sea in Isreal and proved the technical

feasibility of the basic concept. Spurred by the energy crisis of the

1970s, Israel built four more solar ponds which achieved temperatures

ranging from 820 to 1030C (1800F to 2180F) and from which heat was

extracted, One of the ponds covers 1400 square meters (15,000 square feet)

and supplies thermal energy 24 hours a day to power a 6 kilowatt turbine

generator.

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