To advance research in its three Themes, the PROMES Laboratory implements and develops experimental means in the following key areas :
Solar furnaces and concentrating solar systems
The PROMES-CNRS solar installations in Odeillo offer a range of high and very high flux solar furnaces, capable of producing very high temperatures (over 3000°C).
![](https://www.promes.cnrs.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/figure3-1.jpg)
The Themis solar power plant
Thémis is a tower power plant of 5000 kW lit by 107 heliostats. It is owned by the Conseil Départemental des Pyrénées Orientales : Thémis Solaire Innovation (TSI).
The experiments of the European projects Next-CSP and POLYPHEM, led by the PROMES laboratory, are taking place in the Thémis power plant.
![](https://www.promes.cnrs.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/themis.jpg)
Solar reactors and enclosures
Many reactors have been designed by the laboratory and have been, or are still used on MWSFs and MSSFs
![](https://www.promes.cnrs.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/pvdsol-e1627566482846.jpg)
Characterization of the solar resource of the site (weather station)
The experiments carried out in the solar furnace of Mont-Louis and then in Odeillo showed that a precise exploitation of the results required the knowledge of the solar radiation. For that, successively, the two sites were equipped with various meteorological sensors such as pyranometers or pyrheliometers.
![](https://www.promes.cnrs.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/parano.jpg)
High temperature measurement
The control of solar processes requires the control of solar illumination and temperatures.
The particularities of solar furnaces – very high temperatures, parasitic solar reflections, concentrated fluxes, optical pyrometry – require specific means of measurement.
![](https://www.promes.cnrs.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/fig13.jpg)