Continuing in our CSP series, we are going to understand how power tower works.
Before going to parabolic trough, let’s understand the principle of CSP.
The receiver receives heat from sun light. This heat is gathered in oil or other heat medium which further converts water into steam. This steam is used to run steam turbine which produces electricity.
As shown in the figure the reflectors which are known as heliostats reflects and focuses sun light to a tower. This tower is a heat receiver. These heliostats track sun all the day so that they can focus maximum sun light. There is a fluid in this tower such as molten salt. This fluid heats up to 565 °C. The fluid then converts water into steam. This steam is used to run steam turbine to produce electricity.
Molten salt can retain heat for long time. So it can be used to make steam when there is no sunlight or during night. That means this is advantage of CSP over photovoltaic cell which cannot produce electricity when there is no sunlight.
This system is cheaper than photovoltaic cell. And it has low maintenance too!
Here are some images of this system.
Before going to parabolic trough, let’s understand the principle of CSP.
The receiver receives heat from sun light. This heat is gathered in oil or other heat medium which further converts water into steam. This steam is used to run steam turbine which produces electricity.
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| Source : solareis.anl.gov |
As shown in the figure the reflectors which are known as heliostats reflects and focuses sun light to a tower. This tower is a heat receiver. These heliostats track sun all the day so that they can focus maximum sun light. There is a fluid in this tower such as molten salt. This fluid heats up to 565 °C. The fluid then converts water into steam. This steam is used to run steam turbine to produce electricity.
Molten salt can retain heat for long time. So it can be used to make steam when there is no sunlight or during night. That means this is advantage of CSP over photovoltaic cell which cannot produce electricity when there is no sunlight.
This system is cheaper than photovoltaic cell. And it has low maintenance too!
Here are some images of this system.
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