SOLAR TOWERS

GUIDED BY

PRESENTED BY

Dr VASUDEV M

SREERAM NANDAKUMAR

PROFESSOR

14TH13F

NITK

MTECH THERMAL 2 ND SEM

CONTENTS

Concept of solar tower

Components of solar tower

Design parameters

Economic analysis

Challenges in india

Conclusion

WHY SOLAR ENERGY

Solar energy is an important part of life and has been since the
beginning of time. Increasingly, man is learning how to harness this
important resource and use it to replace traditional energy sources.

Solar Energy Is Important as Clean Energy

Solar Energy Is Versatile

Fossil fuels, like gas and oil, are notrenewable energy. They create
massive pollution in the environment.These fuels are expensive to
retrieve from the earth and they are expensive to use.

Solar energy is a clear solution to the problems faced by the use of fossil
fuels. Energy reaching the earth is incredible. By one calculation, 30
days of sunshine striking the Earth have the energy equivalent of the
total of all the planets fossil fuels, both used and unused. [1]

CONCEPT OF SOLAR TOWER

Thesolar power tower, also known as 'central tower' power plants or

'heliostat power plants or power towers, is a type ofsolar furnace using
a tower to receive the focused sunlight.

It uses an array of flat, movable mirrors (called heliostats) to focus the

sun's rays upon a collector tower (Reciever). [2]

Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF) gains heat and transfers this thermal energy to
the power block to generate electric power. [3]

The solar tower power plant mainly consists of two relatively

independent
systems: solar collector and steam power generation system.

The solar collector system includes an array of heliostats and a solar

tower receiver, aiming to convert the solar radiation into the high
temperature thermal energy.

The steam power system comprises steam generator in the tower and
power conversion heat engine, whose purpose is to convert the high
temperature thermal energy into power output. [4]

CONVERSION CYCLES

There are commonly two conversion cycles that are employed with a solar
tower.[5]

Molten salt cycles

Direct steam cycles

Molten salt cycles feature a primary loop where cold molten salt at 290C is
pumped from a tank up to an external tube receiver atop the central tower,
heated up to 565 C and stored in a second ground-based tank

Fig: molten salt based plant

The hot salt is then circulated through a steam generator to run a

conventional steam cycle, and goes back to the cold storage tank.

Given the amount of available molten salt, the storage capacity may
reach 15 hours and this way allow 24 hours of operation on a summer
day.

Molten salt was chosen as the preferred heat transfer fluid because it
has good heat-transfer properties, provides an efficient and low-cost
thermal storage medium and produces steam temperatures that are
compatible with high tower- efficiency Rankine-cycle turbines. [6]

Molten nitrate salts are the commonly used salts for thermal storage
and power generation application [7]

Direct steam cycles use no intermediate loop between the receiver and the steam
turbine: the feed water is directly pumped and evaporated in a cavity tube receiver.

The generated steam is kept at saturation (e.g. 40 [bar], 250 [C] and is accumulated
back to the ground in a short-time buffer tank (45 minutes at half the nominal power).

It drives then the turbine, is condensed at about 0.06 [bar], 50 [C] and is pumped up
in the tower again.

The main development opportunity for direct steam cycles is the generation of
superheated steam to allow the use of larger industrial turbines and exceed 40% of
cycle nominal efficiency. [5]

Fig: Steam based plant

COMPARISON BETWEEN MOLTEN SALT AND WATER

BASED PLANTS [7]
NITRATE SALT

STEAM

RECEIVER

565 C

550 C

PEAK FLUX ON
RECEIVER

1000 kW/m2

300 kW/m2

HOT STORAGE

565 C

DEPENDS ON
TECHNOLOGY

COLD STORAGE

290 C

DEPENDS ON
TECHNOLOGY

CONDENSER

40 C HEAT
REJECTION

40 C HEAT
REJECTION

SOLAR UPDRAFT POWER TOWER

[8]

Solar updraft tower power plant (SUTPP, also called as solar chimney
power plant is a kind of device that produces buoyancy to drive air to
ascend for electricity generation.

A conventional SUTPP consists of a circular solar collector constructed

on horizontal ground, a vertical solid SUT situated at the centre of the
collector, and turbine generators installed at the collector outlet or at
the SUT inlet.

In the solar collector, solar radiation passes through the transparent roof
and is received by the absorber, i.e., the ground or an additional
absorber laid on the ground, and thus the indoor air is heated.

Some heat is stored in the absorber when solar radiation is strong

during day time on sunny days. The heat is released from the absorber
when solar radiation is weak during night time or on cloudy days.

The density difference between the warm air inside the SUT and the
ambient air creates buoyancy that acts as the driving force and is also
called pressure potential.

The buoyancy drives the air to flow in the collector toward the SUT base
and rise in the SUT. Finally, the air current drives the turbines powering
generators to generate electricity.

COMPONENTS OF SOLAR TOWER [7]

HELIOSTATS

The heliostats field consists of a large number of individual heliostats

(from several hundreds to thousands). Heliostats are mirrors that are
managed by a dual axis optical solar tracking system.

The analog solar tracking circuit controls two mechanical actuators that
move a mirror plane on two axes. The mirror plane will reflect the
sunlight to a stationary target during the day and then return to a preset
morning position after sunset.

Heliostat consists of:

a sunlight reflector,

a tracking unit with the drive motor,

the foundation

the electronic control system

Due to economic considerations, large heliostats with areas from 100 to

200 m are applied in the current projects.

FACETED GLASS/METAL HELIOSTATS

MEMBRANE TYPE HELIOSTATS

 TOWER AND RECIEVER [7]

The only receiver of central solar tower power plant is located on the top
of the tower. As support of the receiver the tower is commonly with a
height of 80 to 100m and made of concrete or steel lattices.

A higher tower is preferable for bigger and denser heliostats field but it
should to avoid the shades or objects that block the sun.

At the same time, the technical factors, e.g. tracking precision and the
economic factors, e.g. tower costs should also be considered to
determine the height of the tower.

The Receiver of solar tower power plant transforms the solar energy
collected by heliostats into the thermal energy of working fluid.

Water/steam receivers are the most used receiver in solar tower power
plants, e.g. in the early power plant 10MW Solar One in the USA and in
the world largest solar tower PS20 in Spain.

Meanwhile the molten salt receiver and open volumetric air receiver are
applied in some demonstrate plants.

MOLTEN SALT RECEIVER

The closed tube receiver system is currently the favourite molten salt
receiver system. In the closed tube receivers the molten salt is pumped
through the black coloured receiver tubes and heated there.

Molten salt consists of sodium or potassium nitrate (NaNO3, KNO3). In

contrast to air, the molten salt has a much higher heat capacity and can
be directly used as heat storage medium. [7]

WATER/STEAM RECEIVER [7]

The structure of the water/steam receiver is essentially consistent with

the previously described molten salt tube receiver.

Instead of the molten salt water is evaporated in the receiver tube and
possibly overheated so that the steam turbine system is directly
supplied with the saturated steam.

Most of them were provided by the two-phase flows (water/steam) and

the related difficulties in heat transfer and material fatigue.

In recent years the Spanish company Abengoa has developed the

technical mature saturated steam receiver and it is applied in the solar
tower PS10.

A storage tank of saturated steam was integrated into the system in

order to ensure the continuous operation during the time with
insufficient or without solar radiation.

 POWER CONVERSION SYSTEMS [7]

Rankine Cycle system

Integrated Solar Combined Cycle System (ISCCS) and other hybrid

systems

Stirling motor.

The Rankine Cycle is a mature solar only technology that provides a high
solar contribution.
Meanwhile the ISCCS with a gas-fired hybrid facility offers a low cost
alternative for the solar powered electricity generation.
The Stirling motor is only implemented in the solar dish-Stirling system.

 THERMAL STORAGE DEVICES [7]

To store heat energy in ST system, a choice can be made from several

different systems: solid salt, two-tank molten salt, thermocline, solid
materials (concrete), pressurized saturated water, etc.

Currently the most proven thermal storage technology is two-tank

molten salt system.

The storage medium used in this system is a mixture of 60% sodium

nitrate (NaNO3) and 40% potassium nitrate (KNO3), which has been
proved as a favourable combination.

On sunny days, the heat energy is transported by synthetic oil from the
solar field to the oil-to-salt heat exchanger and then this heats the salt
in the cold tank to 384C, which will then be stored in the hot tank.

In the evening or on the cloudy days, the salt mixture is pumped to the
exchanger and heats the oil to provide thermal energy for electricity
generation.

SOLAR TOWERS AND THEIR SPECIFICATIONS

[3]

GEMASOLAR SPAIN

PS10 AND PS20 SPAIN

IVANPAH TOWER USA

ACME SOLAR TOWER INDIA[9]

Technology:

Power tower

Status:

Operational

Country:

India

City:

Bikaner

Region:

Rajasthan

Lat/Long Location:

2811 2.0 North, 7314 26.0 East

Land Area:

12 acres

Start Production:

April 2011

Heliostat Solar-Field
Aperture Area:
16,222 m
Number of
Heliostats:
14,280
Heliostat Aperture
Area:
1.136 m
Tower Height:
46 m
Heat-Transfer Fluid
Type:
Water/Steam
Receiver Inlet Temp: 218C
Turbine Capacity
Receiver Outlet
(Gross):
2.5
MW
Temp:
440C
Turbine Capacity
(Net):
2.5 MW

DESIGN PARAMETERS
Overall efficiency of conversion of solar to electric energy [3]

 Equivalent capacity [3]

The mirror area and land area per MWe of rated capacity varies due to
the number of thermal storage hours employed. Hence there is a
necessity to normalise the mirror and land area taking in to
consideration the number of hours of thermal storage.

Assume a plant with no thermal storage operates for 9 hours a day.

Then a plant with x hours of thermal storage have an increased capacity
by a fraction of (9+x)/9.

where x is the number of hours of thermal storage.

MIRROR AND LAND AREA COMPARED WITH EQUIVALENT CAPACITY [3]

PACKING DENSITY [3]

The packing density of a plant is defined as the ratio of mirror area to

land area.It gives an indication of the extent of utilisation of land.

RECEIVER SIZE[3]

Where equivalent capacity is in MW, is power block efficiency

The receiver efficiency is in the range of 80 90 %.Here it is taken as
85 %

Depending on the type of HTF used the maximum allowable flux density
on the receiver is fixed. It is taken as 85 % of maximum allowable flux
density.

Where flux on receiver is kW/m2

 The actual receiver area is higher than that of the calculated area inorder
to accomadate spillages,varying flux distribution,thermal losses etc.

TOWER HEIGHT

It has been seen that there is no direct correlation between tower height
and equivalent capacity.

The ratio of farthest distance of heliostat to the tower height for most
plants fall in between 5.7 and 5.8

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
INVESTMENT COST [7]

Site development & Infrastructure

Heliostat field

Receiver

Tower & Piping

Power Block/Balance of Plant(BOP)

Thermal Storage

Indirect costs

 Site development & Infrastructure [7]

The activity typically involves site selection & planning as well as landdisturbing tasks such as clearing, excavating and grading.

These costs also include the land cost and construction costs for
buildings (power house, storage depot and administration building) and
roads inside the power plant and those connecting to the main roads.

 HELIOSTAT COST

The investment cost for the heliostat is composed of the costs for
heliostats (including drive and foundation), the wiring, process control
and assembly.

RECEIVER COST

 TOWER AND PIPING COST

The investment cost of tower is related to its height and the figure given by
Fichtner is calculated using the following formula:

The investment cost of the tower is influenced by the price of the

construction materials, and therefore cost will be different every year. The
piping efficiency will increase due to larger piping and shorter lengths per
kWe in the large scaled project, ultimately resulting in lower costs.

 POWER BLOCK AND BALANCE OF POINT COST

The power block and balance of the plant costs include: the steam
turbine and generator, steam turbine and generator auxiliaries, steam
generator, feed water and condensate systems, condenser and cooling
tower system, water treatment system, fire protection, piping,
compressed air systems, closed cooling water system, instrumentation,
electrical equipment, etc.

 THERMAL STORAGE COST

The main components for the current two-tank thermal storage system
are the hot storage tank, cold storage tank and piping.

The advanced thermal storage concept, for instance the direct

thermocline molten-slat storage system can reduce the thermal storage
cost significantly.

 TOTAL INVESTMENT COST

According to this table the total investment cost for solar tower plant is
currently from 4500 to 16900$/kW(Rs.28000 to 10lakh/kW). These costs
are much higher than for the parabolic trough power plant of 3000 to
6700$/Kw.

 LEVELIZED ENERGY COST [7]

Levelized Energy Cost (LEC) is defined as the total cost of a system over
its lifetime divided by the expected energy output over its useful lifetime.

LEC includes all costs through the lifetime of a plant including the initial
investment, operations and maintenance, cost of fuel, and cost of capital.

It is a measurement of the cost of producing energy from a technology and

is an important parameter to gauge the commercial viability of any
electricity generation technology.

The LEC is the minimum price at which energy must be sold for an energy
project to break even.

crf : capital recovery factor

Cinvest : total investment cost of the plant
CO&M : annual operating and maintenance costs
Enet : annual net electricity output

kd : real debt interest rate = 8%

n : life time = 25 years

A capital recovery factor is the ratio of a constant annuity to the present

value of the total investment cost of the plant.

The life time is defined as the useful life of the major technology
components which are usually within a range of 20 to 30 years.

PAYBACK PERIOD [5][10]

The payback period is the amount of years needed to start being

profitable, based on a given sale price.
Simple payback period N is given as
N = Total cost/(Annuity +O & M)
N is the number of years, the annuity is the profit from the sale of the
electrical energy, O&M is the yearly operation and maintenance costs and
total cost is the total cost of the power plant.

NET PRESENT VALUE

NPV is the sum of the actualised values of all expenses and incomes.

NPV is preferred here to provide an estimate of the total actualised

amount earned until the end of the defined plant lifetime.

NPV = (P/A)*Annuity + (P/A)* O&M Total cost

NPV in INR = 500 crores

CHALLENGES IN INDIA

TECHNICAL

As seen from the r/h ratio the farthest heliostat can be as much a km
from the tower. When a sun ray is reflected from such a large distance ,it
is bound to undergo attenuation losses. These losses occur due to the
scattering and diffusion of reflected solar radiation by aerosols,moisture
content and dust in the atmosphere.
Most areas in India which have abundant solar irradiation (for example,
Gujarat and Rajasthan) are also areas which are prone to very high dust
factors.
Dust in the atmosphere,not only causes attenuation losses but also
settles on the heliostats,thereby reducing their life and efficiency.
In these cases,maintenance of each heliostat (mirror cleaning)is of
prime importance and this is not an easy taskina field with thousands of
mirrors .

OPPORTUNITIES

Most parts of India receive high solar resource, i.e., Direct Normal
Irradiance(DNI) almost through out the year, which has the potential to
be tapped.Thebest sites in India receive around 2100 kWh/m2/annum.
India receives around 300 sunny days in a year , thus enabling
harnessing of solar energy for the setting up of powerplants. It can be
seen from the map,that most parts of India enjoy a daily solar
radiationof 4.55 kWh/m2/day. Out of the3.28 million km2 of land area
that India spans,around18% receives solar radiation of 5.56
kWh/m2/day which is suitable for solar thermal power generation.

LAND

Micro-siting of wastelands has not been conducted for all states in India.
This needs to be performed in order to estimate the potential or
possibility of ST technology by assessing terrain, soil, wind conditions
etc.
The wasteland locations have to be coupled with matrices like substations, water avail- ability and road connectivity in order to identify
suitable waste- lands for ST installations.
Approximately 0.4 million km2 of waste land is available in India .
Even if 1% of this waste land is utilised,the potential for ST technology is
around 105GWe.

FINANCIAL

Costs of waste land are relatively cheap in India and would be of the
order of about12% of the total capital costs . For zones which receive
high DNI in India,land banks have not yet been identified.

CONCLUSION

Solar tower technology has a vast potential for future energy needs. If
properly tapped we can eliminate the need of any fossil fuels.

However the technical expertise needed for this needs more attention
and researches have to be done to improve the efficiency of each and
every components so that the cost comes down.

India has a great solar resource to use ST technology. The government

has to take initiative to bring in more advanced technologies and also
have to introduce policies that can financially assist ST projects.

Area of research and can be the next big thing in the future

REFERENCES
1. http://www.abengoasolar.com/web/en/por_que_energia_solar/
2. Concentrating Solar Power:State of the Art Solar Beyond Grid Parity:
Spectrum-Efficient Solar Energy for Dispatchable Electricity or Fuels
Workshop,April 2013
3. Gopalakrishnan Srilakshmi et al.Challenges and opportunities for Solar Tower
technology in India,Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews,2015
4. Hongfei Zheng et al.,Thermodynamic analysis of an idealised solar thermal
power plant,Applied thermal engineering 2015
5. Germain Augsburger,Thermo-economic optimisation of large solar tower power
plants
6. GREGORY J. KOLB,ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF SOLAR-ONLY AND HYBRID POWER
TOWERS USING MOLTEN-SALT TECHNOLOGY,Solar Thermal Technology
Department, Sandia National Laboratories,19
7. Wen Zhang,Concentrating Solar Power - State of the Art, Cost Analysis and PreFeasibility Study for the Implementation in China,Institut fr Energiewirtschaft
und Rationelle Energieanwendung, Stuttgart,2009

8. Xinping Zhou,Yangyang Xu,Solar updraft tower power generation,Solar

energy,2014
9. http://www.nrel.gov/csp/solarpaces/project_detail.cfm/projectID=262
10. http://mcensustainableenergy.pbworks.com/