05/14 – Solar Furnace

We had a lovely sunny day this morning for our flight from Khiva to Tashkent.

Unfortunately, upon arrival in Tashkent it was cool and rainy.  

We stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch and had the local specialty…a large pocket of herbs and greens.  It was very tasty.

Then it was on to the Solar Furnace.  This is only the second solar furnace in the world, the other is in France.  The complex collects the sun's rays reflected off 62 gigantic mirrors into a concentrator that has 10,700 mirrors that can focus the light to a single point the size of a large wok.  The temperatures can get up to 3000°C.  It was built during the Soviet period and was used to test materials and equipment and was used in developing advanced ceramic materials.

Unfortunately, it was still raining when we arrived.  The complex director explained the work that was being done in the facility and we walked around the museum.  They had a model that showed the layout of the facility.

Then we all headed into the facility and took the elevator up to the top of the concentrator.  A pretty amazing structure.

Unfortunately, it was not only raining but the clouds had closed in and we could not see much of the field of mirrors.  Too bad.

       *************************************
More Solar Furnace
*************************************

From there it was on to Tashkent and our hotel.  We all walked across the street for dinner and said our goodbyes to Claus and Donna.  They are both flying back to the US tomorrow.