Solar power tower

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This article is about a particular design of Solar thermal electric power plants using mirrors. For the astronomical instrument and other uses of the term, see solar tower (disambiguation). For other tall structures used for electricity power generation, see Energy tower (disambiguation).

The solar power tower (also know as 'Central Tower' power plants or 'Heliostat' power plants or power towers) is a type of solar furnace using a tower to receive the focused sunlight. It uses an array of flat, moveable mirrors (called heliostats) to focus the sun's rays upon a collector tower (the target). The high energy at this point of concentrated sunlight is transferred to a substance that can store the heat for later use. The most recent heat transfer material that has been successfully demonstrated is liquid sodium. Sodium is a metal with a high heat capacity, allowing that energy to be stored and drawn off throughout the evening. That energy can, in turn, be used to boil water for use in steam turbines. Water had originally been used as a heat transfer medium in earlier power tower versions (where the resultant steam was used to power a turbine). This system did not allow for power generation during the evening. Examples of heliostat based power plants are the 10 MWe Solar One, Solar Two, and the 15 MW Solar Tres plants. Neither of these are currently used for active energy generation. In South Africa, a solar power plant is planned with 4000 to 5000 heliostat mirrors, each having an area of 140 m².[1]

Contents

  1. ^ 100 MW Solar Thermal Electric Project in South Africa

History and Information on Power Towers

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Energy Conversion   Edit
Solar power: Active solar | Barra system | Central solar heating plant | Energy tower | Photovoltaics | Solar cell | Solar combisystem | Solar panel | Solar pond | Solar power satellite | Solar power tower | Solar thermal energy | Solar tracker | Solar updraft tower | Passive solar | Trombe wall | Ocean thermal energy conversion
Wind power: Wind farm | Wind turbine
Hydroelectricity: Marine current power | Tidal power | Water turbine | Wave power | Run-of-the-river hydroelectricity
Biological: Mechanical biological treatment | Anaerobic digestion | Biomass
Chemical: Blue energy | Fuel cell | Hydrogen production
Geothermal power: Earth cooling tubes | Deep lake water cooling
Electricity generation: Distributed generation | Microgeneration | Sustainable community energy system
Storage: Thermal energy storage | Seasonal thermal store
Sustainability and Development of Energy   Edit
Conversion | Development and Use | Sustainable Energy | Conservation | Transportation
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