The sun is, without a doubt, the world's largest source of renewable energy. The fact is that, while the earth receives just a portion of the energy produced by the sun (i.e. solar energy), that portion is enormous. Solar energy is received by the earth in the form of light and heat. In today's world, however, the words "power" and "energy" are more closely associated with "electricity." This article gives a broad look at the concept of solar thermal Power Plant including its benefits and shortcomings.
Before you go further, the definition of a solar power plant will be of great importance to you if you must understand the concept. So, carefully read through!
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What is a Solar Thermal Power Plant?
A solar thermal power plant is a power generation facility that uses solar energy to heat a fluid to a high temperature. This fluid transfers heat with water to become superheated steam.
This steam is used to turn the turbines in the power plant, and this mechanical energy is converted to electricity by the generator. These types of developments are essentially the same as power generation using fossil fuels, but instead of burning fossil fuels, they use sunlight to heat steam.
The system uses a solar collector to focus the sun's rays at one point and achieve the right high temperature. There are two types of systems that collect and store solar radiation: manual systems and active systems.
We consider solar thermal power plants to be an active system. This power plant is designed to operate using only solar energy, and most power plants can use fossil fuel combustion to replenish production as needed.
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What is the Concept of a Solar Thermal Power Plant?
The concept of solar power plants is based on converting sunlight into electricity, using photovoltaic (PV) energy directly or indirectly using concentrated solar power (CSP).
Concentrating solar power systems use lenses, mirrors, and tracking systems to focus large areas of sunlight onto small beams. Photovoltaics can convert light into electric current through the photoelectric effect.
The world's largest photovoltaic power plant is the 354 MW Solar Power System (SEGS) CSP facility located in the Mojave Desert, California. Other large CSP power plants include the 250 MW Solar Agua Caliente project in Arizona, Solnova solar power plant (150 MW, 250 MW when completed), and Andasol solar power plant (150 MW), all located in Spain.
Concentrating solar power plants first appeared in the 1980s, and the use of solar energy is increasing. Solar power plants are based on converting sunlight into electricity. As the use of solar energy has increased.
We not only save electricity with the help of solar power plants, but we also contribute to the environment. It directly uses photovoltaic energy to convert solar energy into electricity.
It has a wide range of uses because it is the most economical and can provide electricity through sunlight. After understanding the importance of using solar energy, the utilization rate of these products is increasing day by day. The government has also taken steps to educate people about solar products by introducing incentive programs.
The installation of solar power plants pays off in all aspects, not only in your pocket but all over the world. This kind of solar equipment is actively used and converts solar energy into a usable form, which can be used to power various electrical appliances.
The concentrating solar power system uses mirrors, lenses, and tracking systems to focus large areas of sunlight onto small beams. The photoelectric effect converts light into an electric current. Countries around the world have decided to vigorously promote solar products.
As everyone now knows, with the help of solar energy, we can contribute to the earth and our environment. Plus, it's a one-time investment, no need to spend huge electricity bills over and over again.
Having understood the concept of solar thermal power plants, let’s take a brief look at the types of solar thermal plants.
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Types of Solar Thermal Plants
Despite the fact that there are several types of solar thermal power plants, they are the same in that they use mirrors to reflect and focus sunlight on points. At this point, solar energy is collected, converted to thermal energy, steam is produced, and the generator operates. It produces electricity.
1. Parabolic Trough
The Parabolic Trough also known as a trough line focus collector, consists of a long parabolic reflector that focuses incident sunlight onto a pipe that unloads the trough.
A collector uniaxial solar tracking system can be used to track the sun across the sky as it moves from east to west and ensures that the mirror always has the maximum amount of solar energy incident on it. In order for the trough to focus the sun at 30100 times its normal intensity, the central receiver pipe can reach temperatures above 400°C. This valley is lined with a field of the sun.
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The heat transfer fluid is heated as it passes through a parabolic trough pipe. This fluid transfers heat back to the central heat exchanger, which produces high-pressure superheated steam. This steam powers a turbine to power a generator to generate electricity. The heat transfer fluid is then cooled and returned through the sun.
2. Parabolic dish collector
This is a large parabolic dish that uses a motor to track the sun. So you can always get as much solar radiation as possible and focus it on the focus of the dish. These plates can focus sunlight much better than a parabolic trough and the liquid flowing through them can reach temperatures above 750 °C.
These systems convert heat into mechanical energy by compressing the working fluid when a Stirling engine is chilled, expanding the heated fluid outward from the piston, and moving it within the turbine. Next, a generator converts this mechanical energy into electricity.
3. Solar Tower.
The Solar Power Tower is a large tower that acts as a central receiver of solar energy. They all stand in the middle of a number of mirrors that focus the sun's light on a point with a tower. Many of these flat sun-tracking mirrors are known as heliostats. The tower is equipped with a heat exchanger through which the heat exchange fluid is warmed.
The heat focused at this point can be 1500 times that of the incident Sun. The hot fluid is then used to produce steam and power turbines and generators to generate electricity. One of the downsides of these towers is that they have to be very large economically.
Are there Advantages and Shortcomings?
Yes, there are advantages and shortcomings. First talking about the advantages;
One of the major benefits or advantages of solar thermal Power plants is that they are more efficient at converting heat energy into electricity. This is because the system can generate steam at such high temperatures. Also, these power plants solve the problem of inefficient storage of electricity by storing heat. In fact, thermal storage is more efficient and economical than electricity storage.
In addition, these power plants can generate dispatchable baseload power, which is important because it means that the power generated by these power plants is reliable and can be turned on or off at will to meet the energy needs of society.
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Moreso, the plants represent a cleaner power generation technology than using fossil fuels. So these are some of the cleanest options for power generation. However, these factories still have relevant environmental impacts, because a full life cycle analysis can show all the relevant carbon dioxide emissions involved in the construction of these factories. However, emissions are still far below those associated with fossil fuel plants.
Shortcomings…
In as much as solar thermal power plants have advantages they also have some shortcomings which possess pitfalls. First is that due to the size of the plants a large tract of land is required for it to operate effectively.
Similarly, the demand for water from these factories is also seen as a problem, because a lot of water is needed to produce enough steam. The last potential effect of using large focusing lenses is the damaging effects of these plants on birds. However, birds that block the focus of the sun can incinerate. Some reports of bird kill at power plants, like these, have one bird kills every two minutes.
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