The well-tuned geometry of the florets on the side of the sunflower mind has inspired an improved layout for mirrors employed to concentrate sunlight and generate electricity, according to young research.

The sunflower-inspired layout could reduce the footprint of concentrating solar powerfulness (CSP) plants by almost 20 percent, which could exist a boon for a technology that’s limited, in part, by its massive land requirements.

CSP plants utilise arrays of giant mirrors, each the size of half a tennis court, to beam the sun’s rays up to heat a tubing of fluid in the crown of a tower. This hot fluid drives steam turbines that generate electricity.

In the traditional layout, the mirrors are arranged in rows of circles that ripple away from the central tower. Some, such equally the Spain’s Gemsolar power-generating array, take up 185 acres. That plant, when consummate in 2013, will supply power for near 25,000 homes.