Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Tower

Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Tower

Ancient times perhaps the Egyptian using mirrors to brighter up their houses or tombs. At that time they needed a polished metal glass to illuminate the interior and a person that can move it with the movement of sun because in those times the human power is the main resource of energy but with the passage of time many mechanical mechanism has substituted the human power. Today electricity is the main source of energy and heliostat are move with the motors to track the sunlight. And then it converted into electricity.

Heliostat is the backbone of concentrated solar power. The concentrated sunlight on the tower through heliostat produces high temperature to convert the water into steam which is then use conventionally to operate the turbine to generate the electricity. Initially these types of systems were built in 80’s in Europe, Japan and Russia later on in United States. Salts can store more heat energy because salts have higher melting point and have advantage of heating water.

The heat storage system is also being use to maximize the CSP efficiency up to 60% and it is greater than photovoltaic which up to 19% efficient and if we use CSP with heat storage it will be only 25% efficient. The question here is how does heat storage system works? Normally CSP has a rankine cycle thermal power plant which required cooling. CSP’s are mostly installed in desert where water is limited therefore air cooling has been added. Sunshine is only available in day time and thermal heat storage makes it possible to generate electricity in night. The storage system has dual tank heat storage each of them have a different temperature level. A heat exchanger is use to heat up or cools down the other medium like water or oil and the hours of operation get increased.

In future we might see more efficient chemical heat storage method to make this technology more efficient and useful for everyone and less dependent on season.

References

Brightsourceenergy.com, 'Technology | Concentrating Solar Power Tower', 2015. [Online]. Available: http://www.brightsourceenergy.com/technology#.VeAnNCVViko. [Accessed: 28- Aug- 2015].

B.  Wind and B.  Wind, 'That “Other” Solar Tower Technology', CleanTechnica, 2011. [Online]. Available: http://cleantechnica.com/2011/08/05/that-other-solar-tower-technology/. [Accessed: 28- Aug- 2015].