A brief on Concentrating solar power
Concentrated sunlight has been used to perform useful tasks since the time of ancient China. A legend claims Archimedes used polished shields to concentrate sunlight on the invading Roman fleet and repel them from Syracuse. In 1866, Auguste Mouchout used a parabolic trough to produce steam for the first solar steam engine, and subsequent developments led to the use of concentrating solar-powered devices for irrigation, refrigeration and locomotion.
Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to
focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. The concentrated light is then used as a heat source for a conventional power plant. A wide range of concentrating technologies exist; the most developed are the solar trough, parabolic dish and solar power tower. These methods vary in the way they track the Sun and focus light. In all these systems a working fluid is heated by the concentrated sunlight, and is then used for power generation or energy storage.The SEGS plants in California and Acciona's Nevada Solar One near Boulder City, Nevada are representatives of this technology.
A parabolic dish system consists of a stand-alone parabolic reflector that concentrates light onto a receiver positioned at the reflector's focal point. The reflector tracks the Sun along two axes. Parabolic dish systems give the highest efficiency among CSP technologies. The Big Dish in Canberra, Australia is an example of this technology.
A solar power tower uses an array of tracking reflectors (heliostats) to concentrate light on a central receiver atop a tower. Power towers are less advanced than trough systems but offer higher efficiency and better energy storage capability. The Solar Two in Daggett, California and the Planta Solar 10 in Sanlucar la Mayor, Spain are representatives of this technology.
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Ralph Nader quotes ~ “The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.”
...Anand Varadaraja
Source:Wikipedia, Leonardo Energy
1 comment:
It is really heartening to know that you find CSP an amazing technology. It really is! There is a huge potential for this technology in India's Thar desert.
A 5x5 sqkm farm of solar collectors can produce 1000MW of power using CSP and Thar desert area is 0.23 Million sqkm! Now you can imagine the potential. I am the India Coordinator of a movement called TREC (Trans-Medditerranean Renewable Energy Cooperation). For details, please visit: www.desertec-india.org.in and www.desertec.org. Also, if you are interested, you can join me in creating an awareness in India (in different sections - industry, media, government, scientists and even "common people").
Regards,
Nitin Phansalkar.
nitinphansalkar@yahoo.com
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