Italian Contribution to CSP with Flat or Almost Flat Reflectors
Abstract
This poster presentation is about the Italian contribution made over the last 200 years for the development of Concentrating Solar Thermal Power (CSP) with flat or almost flat reflectors. The topic has been researched in the framework of the Italian Solar Energy History Project promoted by the Italian Group for the History of Solar Energy (GSES) and the Italian Committee “The History of Solar Energy.” The ongoing research has been presented at ISES SWC (Silvi, 2003; Silvi, 2005), EuroSun Congress (Silvi, 2008), and Solar Paces Conference (Silvi, 2009). Studies and experiments on burning mirrors and concentration of sunlight in Italy, in particular during the Renaissance period, are often cited in literature (Mirami, 1582; Bonaventura Cavalieri, 1632; Butti and Perlin, 1980). Lesser known, either nationally or internationally, are the Italian mathematicians, physicists, engineers, and scientists as well as their inventions and experiments aimed at producing steam and electricity from solar heat, carried out in the 19th and 20th centuries. This paper recalls two such inventors, who pioneered the CSP with flat or almost flat reflectors: Alessandro Battaglia (1842 – n.a.), whose work has been rediscovered by GSES in 2008, and Giovanni Francia (1911-1980), known as the father of solar thermoelectric plants, whose 100th anniversary falls this year.