The 1954 Tower-Type Solar Plant Proposal
Umarov's vision for solar energy began remarkably early. At the All-Union Conference in 1954, he proposed the concept of a tower-type solar power plant with a heliostat field — a design in which an array of tracking mirrors (heliostats) concentrates sunlight onto a central receiver mounted atop a tower. This architecture is now the basis for modern concentrated solar power (CSP) plants around the world, from the Ivanpah facility in California to the Noor complex in Morocco.
In 1954, the idea was considered visionary to the point of impracticality. Yet Umarov persisted, and his concept would eventually be realized in the Large Solar Furnace near Tashkent.
Founding the Helio Department, 1963
In 1963, Umarov made the decisive transition from nuclear physics to heliotechnology. He founded the Helio Department at the Physico-Technical Institute of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences, comprising four laboratories and a design bureau. This was not a minor reorganization; it was the creation of an entirely new research infrastructure dedicated to solar energy science and engineering.
Under Umarov's leadership, the department grew into one of the most productive solar energy research groups in the Soviet Union. Tashkent became known as the "Mecca of Heliotechnicians" — a center that attracted researchers, delegations, and collaborators from across the USSR and abroad.
The department's work spanned the full range of solar energy science:
- Solar concentrator design and optical analysis
- Flat-plate and evacuated-tube collector development
- Stirling engine optimization for solar drive
- Thermal energy storage systems
- Agricultural applications of solar radiation
- Solar desalination technology
Founding Heliotechnika Journal
Umarov recognized that a scientific field requires not only laboratories and researchers, but also a publication venue. He founded and served as deputy chief editor of Heliotechnika, a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to solar energy research. The journal became the primary publication outlet for Soviet heliotechnology research.
Remarkably, Heliotechnika continues to be published today. It is republished internationally by Springer under the title Applied Solar Energy, making the research originally published in Russian accessible to the global scientific community. It stands as one of Umarov's most enduring institutional contributions — a journal that has outlived its founder by more than three decades.
UNESCO Paris, 1973: The Sun at the Service of Humanity
In 1973, Umarov participated in the UNESCO International Symposium "The Sun at the Service of Humanity" in Paris. This landmark conference brought together the world's leading solar energy researchers and policymakers at a time when the global oil crisis was making alternative energy sources suddenly urgent.
During his time in France, Umarov visited the Solar Furnace at Odeillo in the Pyrenees — then the world's largest solar furnace, capable of reaching temperatures above 3,500°C. The Odeillo facility made a profound impression on Umarov, reinforcing his conviction that a similar facility should be built in Uzbekistan, where solar irradiance levels were among the highest in the Soviet Union.
The same year, Umarov published "Biruni, Copernicus, and Modern Science" — drawing an intellectual line from Central Asia's medieval scientific golden age to the present, asserting that the region could once again lead in world science.
The Birthday Presentation: December 25, 1975
One of the most consequential presentations in the history of Soviet solar energy took place on December 25, 1975 — Umarov's own birthday. On that day, Umarov demonstrated the principles of a solar furnace to the Military-Industrial Commission, chaired by Dmitry Fyodorovich Ustinov, who would later become the Soviet Minister of Defense.
Earlier in 1975, Umarov had already demonstrated a solar furnace prototype to V.A. Kirillin, Chairman of the State Committee for Science and Technology (GKNT). Kirillin was impressed and lent his support to the project.
The combination of Kirillin's endorsement and Ustinov's Military-Industrial Commission approval proved decisive. The solar furnace project moved from scientific aspiration to national priority.
The CPSU Resolution: May 5, 1976
On May 5, 1976, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the USSR Council of Ministers jointly adopted a resolution authorizing the construction of a Large Solar Furnace (LSF) near Tashkent. This was an extraordinary institutional achievement: a resolution at the highest level of Soviet government, directing national resources toward a solar energy facility in Central Asia.
The resolution was the direct result of Umarov's decades of advocacy, research, and political engagement. Without his 1954 proposal, his 1963 department, his journal, his international participation, and his 1975 demonstrations, the resolution would not have been issued.
The Large Solar Furnace, 1987
The Large Solar Furnace was completed in 1987, near the village of Parkent outside Tashkent, under the leadership of Academician S.A. Azimov. The facility uses a field of 62 heliostats, each measuring 6 meters in diameter, to direct sunlight onto a large parabolic concentrator. The concentrated beam can achieve temperatures exceeding 3,000°C at the focal point.
The LSF was designed for:
- Materials testing — studying the behavior of ceramics, metals, and composites under extreme temperatures
- Solar chemistry — driving high-temperature chemical reactions using concentrated solar radiation
- Astrophysical simulation — replicating the thermal conditions found on planetary surfaces and in stellar atmospheres
- Industrial processing — developing solar-powered methods for producing pure materials
The Large Solar Furnace remains operational today and stands as one of only a handful of such facilities in the world. It is, in the most concrete sense, the physical monument to Umarov's vision — a structure of steel and glass that converts sunlight into temperatures rivaling the surface of stars.
From Nuclear Physics to Solar Energy
Umarov's transition from nuclear physics to heliotechnology was not an abandonment of one field for another. Rather, it reflected a coherent vision: both nuclear reactions and solar radiation are manifestations of the same fundamental physics. The Sun is, after all, a nuclear fusion reactor. Umarov simply chose to study the Sun's energy at both ends — at the subatomic level in the laboratory, and at the planetary level in the desert.