Solar power generation iron block

What is molten salt storage in concentrating solar power plants?

At the end of 2019 the worldwide power generation capacity from molten salt storage in concentrating solar power (CSP) plants was 21 GWh el. This article gives an overview of molten salt storage in CSP and new potential fields for decarbonization such as industrial processes, conventional power plants and electrical energy storage.

What is a concentrating solar power plant?

Power plant components and systems for concentrating solar power (CSP) benefit from a mature and well-understood technology found elsewhere in the power generation industry. The most common cycles employed by conventional CSP plants include subcritical Rankine and Stirling. Gross thermal-to-electric conversion efficiencies are typically 35%–45%.

Can Brayton power blocks be used in a central receiver system?

In this search for better efficiency power blocks, Brayton and combined cycles have been proposed and tested to work with several fluids such as air, carbon dioxide or helium and operating in different thermodynamic conditions (subcritical, supercritical and transcritical) for their use in central receiver systems .

How does concentrated solar power work?

The working principle of concentrated (or concentrating) solar power is very simple: direct solar radiation is concentrated in order to obtain high temperature (approximately between 500 and 1000 °C) thermal energy that is transformed into electrical energy .

How efficient is a solar power plant?

This kind of systems presents overall plant peak efficiency (solar to electric) values in the interval [23–35] %, while its annual solar to electric efficiency varies from 20% to 35% . In the case of PS10, a real plant that has been operational for 13 years, the mean annual efficiency is about 15.4% . Table 2.

Are hybrid solar tower gas turbines a viable technology?

Some already mentioned interesting projects include SOLGATE , SOLHYCO , SOLUGAS and HYGATE , which proved that hybrid solar tower gas turbine systems are a feasible technology that requires more R&D for decreasing electricity prices .