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Certified that the Report entitled Solar Thermal Power plant submitted by Raval
Dhaivat Jaladhi with Enrollment No. A20422411018 on 13th April 2015 is his own work and
has been carried out under my supervision. It is recommended that the candidate may now be
evaluated for his work by the University.
Acknowledgement
I, Raval Dhaivat Jaladhi of B.tech + M.tech (MAE; 8th Semster), Amity School of
Engineering and Technology (A.S.E.T), Amity University Rajasthan, gratefully acknowledge
the guidance, support and co-operation of all the faculty members of A.S.E.T for completing
my report on Solar Thermal Power Plant.
I would like to heartily thank Mr. Laxman Kumar Pandey whose encouragement, guidance
and support from the start till the end of my report enabled me to develop an understanding of
the topic.
I have gained a lot of knowledge about this topic and think that it is a good way of improving
our knowledge on new technologies.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1
1. Introduction
Solar Thermal Power Plant:Solar thermal power plants use the sun's rays to heat a fluid to high temperatures. The fluid is
then circulated through pipes so that it can transfer its heat to water and produce steam. The
steam is converted into mechanical energy in a turbine which is then converted into
electricity by a conventional generator.
Solar thermal power generation works essentially the same as power generation using fossil
fuels, but instead of using steam produced from the combustion of fossil fuels, the steam is
produced by heat collected from sunlight. Solar thermal technologies use concentrator
systems to achieve the high temperatures needed to heat fluid.
For thermodynamic reasons high temperatures are required to achieve the utmost efficiency.
Such high temperatures are reached by increasing the energy flux density of the solar
radiation incident on a collector.
According to the type of solar radiation concentration, solar thermal power plants are
subdivided into: Concentrating (point and line focussing) systems.
1. Solar tower power plants (i.e.central receiver systems) as point focussing power
plants,
2. Dish/Stirling systems as point focussing power plants
3. Parabolic trough and Fresnel trough power plants as line focussing power plants.
Non-concentrating systems.
1. Solar updraft tower power plants
2. Solar pond power plants
Process of solar thermal power generation:
Parabolic trough plants: - The solar field of a parabolic trough plant contains numerous
parallel rows of collectors that comprise parabolic curved dishes and concentrate sunlight
onto an absorber tube that runs along a focal line, thus producing temperatures of about 400
C. The heat carrier here is circulating thermal oil which absorbs the generated heat and
creates steam at an approximate temperature of 390 C in a heat exchanger; the steam is then
used to drive a steam turbine and a generator to generate electricity as in conventional power
plants. The principal share of solar thermal power generation in Spain is currently supplied
by numerous parabolic trough plants each with a capacity of 50 MW, the majority of which
have thermal storage for about seven hours of operation without sun.
Fresnel collectors: - Long, only slightly curved, flat mirrors concentrate the solar radiation
onto a fixed absorber tube, thus directly heating and vaporising water. In comparison with the
parabolic trough, the investment outlay in terms of the reflecting surface is lower due to the
simpler basic concept; on the other hand, the comparative annual efficiency is lower. Two
Fresnel power plants with a total capacity of 31 MW have been put into operation in the
Spanish province of Murcia.
Solar towers: -In solar tower power plants, the solar radiation from hundreds of
automatically positioned dishes is concentrated on a central absorber at the top of the
receiver. The significantly higher concentration of sunlight than in parabolic trough
collectors, for example, also allows for higher temperatures of up to about 1,000 C. This
allows for greater efficiency, particularly when using gas turbines, and is therefore likely to
lead to lower electricity costs.
The first commercial solar tower power plant in Europe, the PS10, which has an installed
capacity of 10 MW, was commissioned in 2007 in Seville, Spain; it was supplemented in
2009 with the PS20, a twin solar tower power plant. In mid-2011, the Gem solar tower power
plant was connected to the grid in the province of Seville. It has a capacity of 20 MW and
uses a thermal molten salt storage system that allows for up to 15 hours of storage at rated
power, thus providing electricity from solar energy around the clock during the summer
months. In October of 2013, a solar power plant with a capacity of 420 MW went on the grid
in the USA, and another with 120 MW is about to be commissioned.
Dish / Stirling systems: - In dish/Stirling systems, a parabolic dish concentrates the solar
radiation onto the heat receiver of a downstream Stirling engine, which then converts the
thermal energy into mechanical power or electricity. Efficiencies of over
30 per cent are achieved. There are prototype systems at the Platform Solar, for example, in
Almeria, Spain. These plants are particularly suitable as stand-alone systems. They also offer
the possibility of interconnecting several individual systems to create a solar farm, thus
meeting an electricity demand from ten kW to several MW.
Solar Pond: - A salinity gradient solar pond is an integral collection and storage device of
solar energy. By virtue of having built-in thermal energy storage, it can be used irrespective
of time and season. In an ordinary pond or lake, when the sun's rays heat up the water this
heated water, being lighter, rises to the surface and loses its heat to the atmosphere. The net
result is that the pond water remains at nearly atmospheric temperature. The solar pond
technology inhibits this phenomena by dissolving salt into the bottom layer of this pond,
making it too heavy to rise to the surface, even when hot. The salt concentration increases
with depth, thereby forming a salinity gradient. The sunlight which reaches the bottom of the
pond remains entrapped there. The useful thermal energy is then withdrawn from the solar
pond in the form of hot brine. The pre-requisites for establishing solar ponds are: a large tract
of land (it could be barren), a lot of sun shine, and cheaply available salt (such as Sodium
Chloride) or bittern.
Solar Updraft Tower: -The solar updraft tower (SUT) is a renewable-energy power plant for
generating electricity from solar power. Sunshine heats the air beneath a very wide
greenhouse-like roofed collector structure surrounding the central base of a very
tall chimney tower. The resulting convection causes a hot air updraft in the tower by
the chimney effect. This airflow drives wind turbines placed in the chimney updraft or around
the chimney base to produce electricity. Plans for scaled-up versions of demonstration
models will allow significant power generation.
Solar
Tower
Dish/
Stirlin
g
Parabolic
trough
Fresnel
Collector
Solar
Pond
Solar
updraft
Tower
Typical
Capacity(MW)
30-200
0.01-1
10-200
10-200
0.2-5
30-200
Real Capacity(MW)
10
0.025
80
0.3
0.05
Concentration
Factor
600-1000
Up to
3000
50-90
25-50
Efficiency in %
10-28
15-25
10-23
9-17
0.7-1.2
Operation Mode
grid
grid/
island
grid
grid
grid
grid
Concentration factors and technical parameters of selected solar thermal power generation
technologies.
Heliostats: Heliostats are reflecting surfaces provided with a two-axis tracking system which ensures
that the incident sunlight is reflected towards a certain target point throughout the day.
Heliostats commonly concentrate sunlight by means of a curved surface or an appropriate
orientation of partial areas, so that radiation flux density is increased.
Heliostat fields: The layout of a heliostat field is determined by technical and economic optimization:
Heliostats located closest to the tower present the lowest shading, Heliostats placed north
on the northern hemisphere (or south on the southern hemisphere) show the lowest cosine
losses.
Heliostats placed far off the tower, by contrast, require highly precise tracking and,
depending on the geographic location, have to be placed farer from the neighbouring
heliostats.
Notes:
Cosine losses: -of the earth
The cost of the land, the tracking and the orientation precision thus determine the economic
size of the field.
For about half the cost of the solar components