page_title: Pyrenees
section_title: Odeillo solar furnace
hierarchical_section_title: Pyrenees / Scientific facilities / Odeillo solar furnace
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Das Sonnenofen von Odeillo, im Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via (Pyrénées-Orientales, Frankreich). English: The Solar furnace of Odeillo, in Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via (Pyrénées-Orientales, France). Français&#160;: Le four solaire d’Odeillo, à Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via (Pyrénées-Orientales, France).
context_page_description: The Pyrenees is a mountain range between Spain and France. Reaching a height of 3,404 metres altitude at the peak of Aneto, it extends for about 491 km from its union with Cantabrian Mountains to the Mediterranean Sea.
  For the most part, the main crest forms a divide between Spain and France, with the microstate of Andorra sandwiched in between. Historically, the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre extended on both sides of the mountain range.
context_section_description: The Odeillo solar furnace is the world's largest solar furnace. It is situated in Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via, in the department of Pyrénées-Orientales, in south of France. Built between 1962 and 1968, it is 54 metres (177 ft) high and 48 metres (157 ft) wide, and includes 63 heliostats. The site was chosen because of the length and the quality of sunshine with direct light (more than 2,500 h/year) and the purity of its atmosphere (high altitude and low average humidity).
  This furnace serves as a science research site studying materials at very high temperatures. Temperatures above 3,500 °C (6,330 °F) can be obtained in a few seconds, in addition it provides rapid temperature changes and therefore allow studying the effect of thermal shocks.
caption: Odeillo solar furnace.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2010:09:05 16:56:38", "Image ExifOffset": "172", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "310", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4049", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "8886", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3780"}