Solar farm

Considering that the electricity used by the United States is about 4.5 x 1012 kWh/yr (15.35Q), if this amount of energy was to be produced by solar farms in the arid southwestern regions (the area of the Mojave Desert alone is 15,000 mi2), the area required to generate 1 Q at a yearly insolation is 2,250 kWh/m2/yr and with a collector efficiency of 20% is 2,250/3,000 x 488 x 15.35 = 5,618 km2 or 2,194 mi2. Therefore, 14.6% of the Mojave Desert would need to be covered to meet the total electric energy requirement of the United States. 

One important aspect of solar farm optimization is the tracking of the sun s trajectory while concentrating the sunlight, so that the mirror reflectors or troughs will be correctly rotated around both axes while concentrating the solar radiation. In order to maximize the collector efficiency, solar and position detectors (Sections 3.15 and 3.17 [Chapter 3]) are used. Some of the tools of positioning include the use of machine vision (Section 3.12) and a variety of positioning devices (Section 3.15). 

The thermal solar farm operation will be optimum if it efficiently responds to both the variation in solar energy availability (insolation) and to both equipment limitations and market conditions. In order to do that, one of the first requirements is to determine the efficiency curves for each combination of equipment blocks as a function of load and then operate the system at that point. 

Thermal solar farm generated heat used for electricity generation by steam turbine. 

The optimization of the solar farm operation is assisted by the automatic switching between five equipment configurations. These configurations are a function of the supply and demand for solar heat energy ... 

No solar heat is collected on the solar farm, and therefore the heat demand of the boiler is met from hot oil storage. 

The solar farm shown in Figure 4.1 (gatefold) consists of parabolic thermal collectors (discussed in detail in Chapter 1, Section 1.4.4.1), which concentrate... 

The methods for finding the optimum collector positions for the individual collector will use the author s minimum shadow area strategy. At the higher level of overall solar farm optimization, the herding optimizer algorithms will also be used to identify individual units that might be defective or to correct their position, starting with the collector that is furthest from the optimum. 

A and PCV-1B) start to send some of the heat collected by the solar farm to storage. Thereby, as the PC-1 output drops from 50 to 0%, more and more of the solar hot oil is sent to storage. 

Fig. 2 SCOT-solar farm (Solar Concentration Off-Tower) [10-11]...

We have made cost analysis for the solar methanol production for the system of Fig. 1. In this analysis, SCOT-solar farm (Solar Concentration Off-Tower central receiver beam-down configuration) is used for solar concentrating system(Fig.2). This solar concentrating system has an economical advantage, since the heavy chemical plant can be installed on the ground. Since the high temperature of 1000-1200°C is obtained by the SCOT-solar farm, chemical plant (or reactor) for solar-assisted coal gasification can be operated. Table 1 shows estimated investment cost... 

Table 1. Investment cost for SCOT solar farm construction...

The estimated cost was 0.6-0.8 /gallon methanol. This figure shows that the solar methanol produced by the solar-assisted gasification is equal to that by the conventional process. Also, this is competitive to the gasoline (1.0-1.2 /gallon). These results show that the solar methanol production by the solar-assisted coal gasificahon with SCOT-solar farm can be operated in the commercial base. The cost of the solar methanol produced from H2 by PV is estimated to be 8-10 times higher than that by the conventional process[13]. 

The system of Fig. 4 is the alternative of the system of Fig.l. In this system, coal is pre-treated by liquefaction process, and the coke is used for the gasification of the system of Fig. 1. Also, two kinds of liquid fuel of oil and methanol are produced. The H2 required for liquefaction can be supplied from the gasification of coke. This system will take an important role for production of syn-oil, when oil is shortage. In this system with SCOT-solar farm (500mx600m), we assumed that 180t/day coal is treated, and that 90t/day oil (conversion efficiency =50%) by the liquefaction process and 410kl/day of methanol by the solar-assisted coke gasification are... 

In the solar H2 production farm, the produced amount of the solar methanol will be reduced to 1/4, since the solar share in the solar methanol is increased from 26% (coal) to 100% (recovered COj). This will result in the increase in the solar methanol cost by 4 times, 0.6x4= 2.4 /gallon methanol (This cost dose not include the cost for CO recovery). Thus, the solar methanol produced by 100% of solar energy (solar H2) and the recovered CO2 can not be competitive to the present cost, even though it is produced by solar thermochemical process using the SCOT-solar farm. This suggests that there is an optimum where the solar methanol cost is competitive and the coal is replace by the solar Hj with a maximum solar share. 

The current trend for photovoltaics is not to erect large centralized solar farms in the desert, which started in the 1980s, but utilize distributed generation with individual units on rooftops. 

Some ideas have to be improved solar farm, methanation, development of wind power, development of photovoltaic, additional wind farm, and geothermal on the aquatic center. 

Wolfson, M. (2011, October 21). Residential solar farms face growing opposition. The Windsor Star. http //www.windsorstar.com/business/Residential+solar+farms+face+growing+opposit ion/5584930/story.html. Accessed 6 Dec 2011. 

DEADY s, VARiAN s J A and FIVES J M (1995),The use of cleaner-fish to control sea lice on two Irish salmon (Salmo solar) farms with particular reference to wrasse behaviour in salmon cages, Aquaculture, 131,73-90. 

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