Solar Thermal Energy - STE

Solar Thermal Energy uses high temperature collectors  to concentrate sunlight using mirrors and reflectors  for electricity generation.

Solar Heliostat System
Solar Thermal Heating with Mirrors

  • The solar tower is 115m (377ft) tall and surrounded by 600 steel reflectors (heliostats). They track the sun and direct its rays to a heat exchanger (receiver) at the top of the tower

  • The receiver converts concentrated solar energy from the heliostats into steam

  • Steam is stored in tanks and used to drive turbines that will produce enough electricity for up to 6,000 homes
     

Efficiency level, yes, it baffles a lot of people.

HOW THE SOLAR TOWER WORKS

Heliostat – Solucar Solar plant in Seville, Spain uses steam for electricity generation
In fact it's quite simple, thermal solar uses a heating oil to transfer the heat from the solar collectors (dish or heliostats focusing on a
solar tower) to steam to drive a steam turbine at between 200oC and 300oC and this is 25% at best. Concentrated Photovoltaics (CPV) do also at best 25%.

A new system soon to be unveiled works with compressed air at ~1050oC.  This is what enables over 50% electrical efficiency to be achieved. The higher the temperature the higher the efficiency.

Thermal Solar with Dish

The sun is reflected from a dish or an array of reflectors and the resulting heat is used to heat the compressed air, causing expansion of that air, that is in turn applied to the compressed air engine powering a generator.

This and other innovations allow electricity efficiency of over 50%. That is 50% of the concentrated sun's energy is used as energy for the compressed air engine.
 Initially a dish is expected to produce 10kW about  enough electricity for small business or about 2 to 3 households

3 levels of Solar Thermal Energy STE

  1. Low temperature collectors are flat plates generally used to heat swimming pools.
  2. Medium-temperature collectors are also usually flat plates but are used for creating hot water for residential and commercial use.
  3. High temperature collectors concentrate sunlight using mirrors or reflectors and are generally used for electric power production.


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