bring me sunshine

An out and about day. We visited some of the hillside pueblos nearby. Some of them such as Macael have been at the centre of the marble industry supplying to places such as the Alhambra. Then on to Lucainena de las Torres where iron ore mining was the mainstay until 1942. Evidence of the work is still visible most notably in 8 huge kilns which were used to refine the ore before shipping out by rail. The heat must have been intense: it was today without any fires burning.

And there were rural road which turned into gravel river beds.

So, lots of potential blips but this one wins out. As we drove towards Tabernas, by Europe's only desert region, near where they filmed Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns such as A Fistful of Dollars, we came across this intensely bright light. It is part of the Plataforma Solar de Almería, a solar research station which has been on the go for some 25 years, testing out various methods of harnessing solar power. I could not find out about this yellow version but assume it works like some others where the sun's rays are focused by mirrors onto one spot where either water it turned into steam to drive a generator or fluids such a molten salt are superheated then stored to release their energy at nighttime. The heat can be intense, burning through metal.

Whichever it is it looked very futuristic and created a light that could be seen for miles.