Abstract
Solar thermal electricity generation, or concentrating solar power (CSP), is the production of electricity using direct solar irradiation as the primary source of energy. The amount of solar irradiation directly coming from the sun, wherever is its position in the sky, is called Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI). The first step to obtain electricity is to concentrate the solar rays to heat a fluid to a temperature which is sufficiently high to produce steam after its transit through a heat exchanger. Next, depending on the pressure and the temperature reached by the steam, a specific type of turbine connected to an electricity generator is activated. Given the high capacity of the power plant (in the order of MW), the electricity is evacuated through a transmission grid. Concentrating solar plants are, thus, a chain of energy conversions: In order to obtain electricity, a given working fluid accumulates the thermal energy contained in the direct solar irradiation which has been concentrated by the appropriate collectors. Then, the heat of the fluid transforms water into superheated steam at a given pressure in a heat exchanger.
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Notes
- 1.
It is also possible to generate solar thermal electricity using a gas turbine, in which the operating principle is the Brayton thermodynamic cycle. However, this is not a commercial option yet.
- 2.
Hybrid plants need a receiver installation which is able to use natural gas, biomass, etc.
- 3.
There is the dry and the wet cooling system. Both have similar costs, although the annual electricity generation of the former is between 3% and 6% lower. The warmer the environment, the more likely that the performance of the wet-cooled system regarding the condensation of the steam exhaust exceeds the performance of the dry-cooled system [2: 10–23].
- 4.
Desert and arid regions which are less suitable for CSP include those where there are, even if unlikely, rainy events, the phenomenon of fog desert and fields of constantly moving dunes, or have deep slopes.
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Mir-Artigues, P., del Río, P., Caldés, N. (2019). Introduction. In: The Economics and Policy of Concentrating Solar Power Generation. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11938-6_1
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