The Power Production Operation of Solar One, the 10 MWe Solar Thermal Central Receiver Pilot Plant

Abstract

Calif., completed a three-year period of power production testing in July 1987. During this period the plant's capacity factor, system efficiency, and availability were studied to assess the operational capability of Solar One to reliably supply electrical power. The long-term performance of key plant components, such as the heliostats and the receiver, was also studied. During the three years of power production operation, Solar One achieved increases in capacity factor, system efficiency, and availability. Heliostat operation was reliable, and only small amounts of mirror corrosion were observed. Receiver tube leaks did occur, however, and were the main cause ofthe plant's unscheduled outages. Solar One provided valuable lessons which will aid in the design of future solar central receiver plants.

Review of avian mortality studies at concentrating solar power plants

“…At Solar One, McCrary et al 4 estimated that ~2 birds per week were killed (primarily from collisions) or ~100 birds per year at Solar One. Radosevich 21 reports that the annual energy production from Solar One during the second year of operation was 10.5 GWh. Thus, the levelized avian mortality was ~10 fatalities per GWh at Solar One.…”

Levelized Cost of Coating (LCOC) for selective absorber materials

“…The annual thermal energy absorbed was assumed to be affected by the collector efficiency, receiver efficiency (which includes the selective absorber efficiency), and parasitic losses. The degradation rates and costs associated with materials, application, reapplication, downtime, and degradation are based on available data from Solar One [1], Ho et al [6], and consultation with engineers from Babcock & Wilcox (Table 2). Table 2) assuming Q=600 kW/m 2 and T=700°C…”

“…Table 3 shows the input parameter uncertainty distributions used in the analysis. The nominal values were based on Pyromark 2500 and available data from Solar One [1], Ho et al [6], and information from other power tower applications. The uncertainty distributions about the nominal values were assumed to be uniform with minimum and maximum values based on available data (e.g., radiative properties of candidate materials being developed for this project) and professional judgment.…”

“…Pyromark® Series 2500 high temperature paint has been used on previous CSP central receivers ( Figure 2) and is considered a standard [1,2,6]. Pyromark 2500 is relatively inexpensive, easy to apply, and has a measured solar absorptance of 0.96 (new) [6].…”

“…Several mirror configurations are possible, including dishes, parabolic troughs, linear Fresnel, and heliostats. One of the most promising CSP technologies is the central receiver (or power tower) system, which consist of a field of large, nearly-flat mirror assemblies (heliostats) that track the sun and focus the sunlight onto a receiver on top of a tower [1,2] (Figure 1). In a typical configuration, a heat-transfer fluid such as water/steam or molten salt is heated in the receiver and used to power a conventional steamturbine Rankine cycle to generate electricity.…”