The world’s largest solar furnace is less of building and more of a machine. Its 10,000 aligned mirrors are capable of heating an area about the size of a volleyball to almost 3,500 C. This high temperature is used for metallurgical and chemical experiments requiring extremely high heat, and to generate electricity with a steam turbine. While solar furnaces have been around for quite some time (legend has it that the Greeks used focused sunlight to burn the ships of the approaching Roman fleet), this one located in the mountainous Pyrenees of southern France dwarfs all comers.
