Solar Thermal Power Plant

A solar collector that uses reflective surfaces to

concentrate sunlight onto a small area,(receiver)
where it is absorbed and converted to heat or, in the
case of solar photovoltaic (PV) devices, into
electricity.

Concentrators can increase the power flux of sunlight

hundreds of times.
 Concentrated Thermal Power
• Concentrated Solar Thermal Power
Generation Systems use mirrors to collect
sunlight and produce steam by solar heat to
drive turbines for generating power.
ENERGY CONVERSION
SOLAR

THERMAL

MECHANICAL

ELECTRICAL
 Thermal energy storage (TES)
• Just like battery is used to store chemical energy,
Thermal energy storage stores the Thermal Energy.
• Molten salt can be used to store Thermal Energy so
that during the conditions of bad weather or during
night time, this stored Thermal energy can be used
to generate steam which in turn rotates the
turbines and generates electrical energy.
• Molten salt is mixture of 60% sodium nitrate and
40% potassium nitrate.
 Types of Solar Thermal Plants
• Based on the arrangement of reflector and
receiver
1) Parabolic Trough
2) Solar Power Tower
3) Solar dish
4) Fresnel Collector
 Parabolic Trough

parabolic trough solar collector consisting of four

major subsystems:
Parabolic reflectors(mirrors)
Receiver tube
Metal support structure
Tracking Systems
Parabolic Trough solar power plant
 Solar power tower systems
• Some concentrating solar power towers are air-
cooled instead of water-cooled, to avoid using
limited desert water.
• Early designs used these focused rays to heat
water, and used the resulting steam to power a
turbine.
• Newer designs using liquid sodium(Na) have
been introduced and systems using molten salts
as the working fluids are now in operation.
 Solar dish system
• The system consists of a stand-alone parabolic reflector
that concentrates light onto a receiver positioned at the
reflector's focal point.
• The working fluid(hydrogen or helium) in the receiver is
heated to 250–700 °C (523–973 K (482–1,292 °F)) and then
used by a Stirling engine to generate power.
• Parabolic-dish systems have the highest efficiency of all
solar technologies provide solar-to-electric efficiency
between 31– 32%.
• Each dish produces around 25kW of electricity. Stirling
Engine
 Fresnel Reflector system
• Linear Fresnel reflectors use long, thin segments of
mirrors to focus sunlight onto a fixed absorber
located at a common focal point of the reflectors.
• These mirrors are capable of concentrating the sun’s
energy to approximately 30 times its normal intensity.
• This concentrated energy is transferred through the
absorber into some thermal fluid.
• The fluid then goes through a heat exchanger to
power a steam generator.
Fresnel Reflector
 Advantages
• No Fuel Cost
• No Pollution and Global Warming Effects
• Using Existing Industrial Base: Solar Thermal Energy uses
equipment like solar thermal mirrors and turbines which is made in
large scale at low cost by the existing Industrial Base and requires
no major changes in equipment and materials
• Easy storage of energy: Can store energy using molten salts instead
of using batteries.
• Less space: Uses less space than photovoltaics for the same energy
generation output.
• Cheap running cost: The running costs of Solar Thermal are
cheaper than coal or gas.
 DISADVANTAGES
• The initial capital costs for solar thermal is large.
• Water Issue: Solar Thermal Plants use lots of Water which is
Major Problem in Desert Areas. Using non-water cooling raises
the cost of CSP projects too much.
• Ecological and Cultural Issues: The Usage of Massive Arrays of
Mirrors is noted to heavily impact the Desert Wildlife
endangering the endangered species.
• Limited Locations and Size Limitations:
• Solar thermal can’t be installed in residential area.
• Build time would be longer than other forms of energy
generation.