Abo Bibliothek: Guest

ISSN Online: 2377-424X

International Heat Transfer Conference 12
August, 18-23, 2002, Grenoble, France

High temperature solar energy - The key to sustainable energy provision

Get access (open in a dialog) DOI: 10.1615/IHTC12.3410
12 pages

Abstrakt

The limited supply of fossil hydrocarbon resources and the negative impact of CO2 emission on the global environment dictate the increasing usage of renewable energy sources. Concentrated Solar Power is the most likely candidate for providing the majority of this renewable energy, because it is amongst the most cost-effective renewable electricity technologies and because its supply is not restricted if transported from the World's solar belt to the population centres. Three main technologies have been identified during the past decades for generating electricity in the 10 kW to several 1000 MW range: the dish/engine technology which can directly generate electricity in isolated locations, the parabolic trough technology which produces high pressure, superheated steam and the solar tower technology which produces air above 1000°C or synthesis gas for gas turbine operation. While these technologies have reached a certain maturity, as has been demonstrated in pilot projects in Israel, Spain and the U.S.A., significant improvements in the thermo-hydraulic performance are still required if such installations are to achieve the reliability and effectiveness of conventional power plants. These improvements include, e.g., optimising the concentration of solar radiation, controlling the non-uniform and unsteady state two-phase heat transfer conditions in direct evaporation parabolic trough systems, developing volumetric receivers with highly uniform temperature distribution above 2000°C and large scale thermal storage facilities for short and medium time intervals. These are, obviously, challenging tasks involving all aspects of thermal science and engineering from fundamental experimental and theoretical work, numerical modelling to design of large power plant components. This paper describes the state-of-the-art in Solar Thermal Power Plant technology with particular reference to recent results obtained by the DLR Solar Power Plant Division, and through collaborative investigations with the Spanish CIEMAT at the Plataforma Solar in Almeria, Spain. Several important aspects are identified, where urgent research efforts are required.