Solar furnace

A facility that concentrates sunlight to produce very high temperatures for research or industrial processes. It uses mirrors or lenses to focus solar radiation onto a target.

Concentrated solar power: Solar energy technology that uses mirrors or lenses to concentrate sunlight for heat or electricity. Solar furnaces share its use of optical concentrators, though they prioritize extreme target temperatures.
Solar-pumped laser: A laser whose gain medium is excited directly by concentrated sunlight. Solar furnaces can test and operate materials for sunlight-driven laser systems.
Odeillo Solar Furnace: A large research solar furnace in the French Pyrenees, operating since 1970. Its heliostat field and curved mirror form a prominent large-scale research installation.
Electric furnace: A furnace that generates heat by converting electrical energy into thermal energy. It can reach high temperatures without relying on sunlight or weather.
Solar intermittency: Variation in solar energy availability caused by clouds, day-night cycles, and seasonal changes. Changing sunlight complicates experiments that require steady furnace temperatures.
Heliostat: A sun-tracking mirror that rotates to reflect sunlight toward a fixed target. Arrays of heliostats direct sunlight onto the furnace's receiver.
Solar thermochemistry: The use of concentrated solar heat to drive chemical reactions. Furnaces supply the high temperatures needed to study solar-driven reaction pathways.
PSA Solar Furnace: A research solar furnace at the Plataforma Solar de Almería in Spain. It provides a European test facility for high-temperature solar applications.
Blast furnace: A tall industrial furnace that extracts metal from ore using fuel and a hot air blast. It is a major industrial high-temperature process based on combustion rather than solar concentration.
Thermal energy storage: The capture of heat for later use, using materials or systems that retain thermal energy. Storage could smooth fluctuations in solar input, but extreme-temperature operation poses design challenges.

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