Concentrating Solar Thermal Power Technologies: A review

Abstract

This reports on a review on Concentrating Solar Thermal Power (CSP) Technology. It is a renewable energy technology that can become the world's main source of electricity in the future. This technology provides clean, reliable and environmentally friendly energy. CSP systems are divided into line focusing systems and point focusing systems. The later systems produce high temperature concentrations. They also have higher efficiencies compared to their counterparts. However, CSP efficiencies in general need to be improved. There are a number of factors that affect their efficiency and hence the on-going research on how to improve on CSP efficiency. South Africa is in a virtue of using CSP technology as it seems viable in this country due to high average annual Direct Normal Irradiance as experienced in places such as the Northern Cape in South Africa.

Aluminium Alloys in Solar Power − Benefits and Limitations

“…This tube contains oil and is used as heat transfer medium. Temperature of the oil in the tube can reach as high as 400°C [46]. Figure1 shows a real and a schematic of a parabolic trough CSP system.…”

“…Table 1. Properties of CSP technologies [8,46,47] Currently, capacity of installed concentrated solar power plants is 516MW in the world. 90.2% of this capacity belongs to parabolic trough systems, followed by 8.5% for solar tower, 0.8% for Fresnel trough systems and 0.24% for solar dishes [48].…”

Active power control of solar PV generation for large interconnection frequency regulation and oscillation damping

“…As a countermeasure to reduce greenhouse gas emission and secure energy supply, increasing usage of solar irradiation energy in electric power sector has been adopted by many countries around the world. There are currently two main types of solar electricity generations: photovoltaic (PV) [1] and concentrating solar thermal (CST) [2,3]. For CST type, heat from the Sun's rays is collected and used to heat a fluid and produce the steam which drives a conventional generator that produces electricity.…”

Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Parabolic Trough Solar Cavity-Type Receivers

“…In order to concentrate the solar radiation into small enclosures to collect enough thermal energy, various technologies were applied, e.g., parabolic trough, linear Fresnel, power tower, and dish/engine. Parabolic troughs are the most commercially available technology and have been developed into a mature technology (Machinda et al 2011). Receiver, which connects with the parabolic trough reflectors, is the critical component to absorb the concentrated light.…”