Concentrating Solar Plant

A lot of thermochemical cycles have been proposed in literature [4, 67, 68], potentially able to exploit the high-temperature energy coming from nuclear or concentrating solar plants (CSP). 

A 354 mW thermal solar plant at Kramer Junction in the Harper Valley in California that has been in operation since 1985 (courtesy of NREL/DOE). (Top) This is one of nine solar electric energy-generating plants at Kramer Junction, California and it uses parabolic troughs to collect the Sun s energy. (Courtesy of National Recoverable Energy Laboratory-NREL/DOE.) (Bottom) In the receiver tubes, hot oil transports the concentrated solar heat to steam boilers, which drive the turbine generators. 

Another concentrating solar power (CSP) plant is planned in Madinat Zayed in Abu Dhabi. 

This method could be used for nuclear, concentrating solar or geothermal power plants without carbon dioxide emissions. 

Depending on the system, concentrating solar power generation can be designed to produce from tens to hundreds of megawatts of electricity. The power from it can be dispatchable, because these systems have cost-effective thermal storage and they can be hybridized (coupled with a conventional power plant). Consequently, these plants can produce power before or after sunrise (or 24-hour operation if desired). Concentrating solar power stations are best suited to be either peak-load or intermediate-load power stations. 

Similar schemes are being considered for transport of energy from concentrated solar energy plants [44] [155]. It is possible to achieve solar fluxes at 1000 kWW at 1000"C, which is far above the fluxes in conventional tubular reformers of 100 kW/m (refer to Sections 1.2.2 and 3.2.2). One solution has been to separate the reforming reaction from the solar receiver by having a separate loop of a heat transfer media (as helium for the nuclear reactor). This was studied at first in a sodium heat pipe reformer [363]. However, reactors for direct absorption of the solar... 

Fig. 27.10 SEGS (Solar Energy Generating Plant) at Kramer junction, west of Barstow, California. These installations are concentrating solar power facilities, using parabolic trough with single-axis tracking. They occupy a low-priority patch of land. Source Wikipedia Commons. http //upload.wikimedia.Org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Solarplant-050406-04.jpg...

Concentrated solar thermal power plants with heliostats, solar receiver (heat exchanger) on a tower, and molten salt heat storage system (for details, see Fig. 1.10). Molten salt maximum temperature is 565°C. Rankine steam turbine power cycle used. Up to 20... 

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