Declaration

Certified that the Report entitled Solar Thermal Power plant submitted by Raval
Dhaivat Jaladhi with Enrollment No. A20422411018 on 13th April 2015 is his own work and
has been carried out under my supervision. It is recommended that the candidate may now be
evaluated for his work by the University.

Raval Dhaivat Jaldhi

B.Tech+M.Tech (MAE)

Acknowledgement
I, Raval Dhaivat Jaladhi of B.tech + M.tech (MAE; 8th Semster), Amity School of
Engineering and Technology (A.S.E.T), Amity University Rajasthan, gratefully acknowledge
the guidance, support and co-operation of all the faculty members of A.S.E.T for completing
my report on Solar Thermal Power Plant.
I would like to heartily thank Mr. Laxman Kumar Pandey whose encouragement, guidance
and support from the start till the end of my report enabled me to develop an understanding of
the topic.
I have gained a lot of knowledge about this topic and think that it is a good way of improving
our knowledge on new technologies.

Raval Dhaivat Jaladhi

B.Tech+M.Tech (MAE)
Semster:-8th

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1

1. Introduction
Solar Thermal Power Plant:Solar thermal power plants use the sun's rays to heat a fluid to high temperatures. The fluid is
then circulated through pipes so that it can transfer its heat to water and produce steam. The
steam is converted into mechanical energy in a turbine which is then converted into
electricity by a conventional generator.
Solar thermal power generation works essentially the same as power generation using fossil
fuels, but instead of using steam produced from the combustion of fossil fuels, the steam is
produced by heat collected from sunlight. Solar thermal technologies use concentrator
systems to achieve the high temperatures needed to heat fluid.
For thermodynamic reasons high temperatures are required to achieve the utmost efficiency.
Such high temperatures are reached by increasing the energy flux density of the solar
radiation incident on a collector.
According to the type of solar radiation concentration, solar thermal power plants are
subdivided into: Concentrating (point and line focussing) systems.
1. Solar tower power plants (i.e.central receiver systems) as point focussing power
plants,
2. Dish/Stirling systems as point focussing power plants
3. Parabolic trough and Fresnel trough power plants as line focussing power plants.
Non-concentrating systems.
1. Solar updraft tower power plants
2. Solar pond power plants
Process of solar thermal power generation:

Concentrating solar radiation by means of a collector system;

Increasing radiation flux density (i.e. concentrating of the solar radiation onto a
receiver), if applicable;
Absorption of the solar radiation (i.e. conversion of the radiation energy into thermal
energy (i.e. heat) inside the receiver);
Transfer of thermal energy to an energy conversion unit;
Conversion of thermal energy into mechanical energy using a thermal engine (e.g.
steam turbine);
Conversion of mechanical energy into electrical energy using a generator.

Concentrating (point and line focussing) systems:-

Parabolic trough plants: - The solar field of a parabolic trough plant contains numerous
parallel rows of collectors that comprise parabolic curved dishes and concentrate sunlight
onto an absorber tube that runs along a focal line, thus producing temperatures of about 400
C. The heat carrier here is circulating thermal oil which absorbs the generated heat and
creates steam at an approximate temperature of 390 C in a heat exchanger; the steam is then
used to drive a steam turbine and a generator to generate electricity as in conventional power
plants. The principal share of solar thermal power generation in Spain is currently supplied
by numerous parabolic trough plants each with a capacity of 50 MW, the majority of which
have thermal storage for about seven hours of operation without sun.

Fresnel collectors: - Long, only slightly curved, flat mirrors concentrate the solar radiation
onto a fixed absorber tube, thus directly heating and vaporising water. In comparison with the
parabolic trough, the investment outlay in terms of the reflecting surface is lower due to the
simpler basic concept; on the other hand, the comparative annual efficiency is lower. Two
Fresnel power plants with a total capacity of 31 MW have been put into operation in the
Spanish province of Murcia.

Solar towers: -In solar tower power plants, the solar radiation from hundreds of
automatically positioned dishes is concentrated on a central absorber at the top of the
receiver. The significantly higher concentration of sunlight than in parabolic trough
collectors, for example, also allows for higher temperatures of up to about 1,000 C. This
allows for greater efficiency, particularly when using gas turbines, and is therefore likely to
lead to lower electricity costs.
The first commercial solar tower power plant in Europe, the PS10, which has an installed
capacity of 10 MW, was commissioned in 2007 in Seville, Spain; it was supplemented in
2009 with the PS20, a twin solar tower power plant. In mid-2011, the Gem solar tower power
plant was connected to the grid in the province of Seville. It has a capacity of 20 MW and
uses a thermal molten salt storage system that allows for up to 15 hours of storage at rated
power, thus providing electricity from solar energy around the clock during the summer
months. In October of 2013, a solar power plant with a capacity of 420 MW went on the grid
in the USA, and another with 120 MW is about to be commissioned.

Dish / Stirling systems: - In dish/Stirling systems, a parabolic dish concentrates the solar
radiation onto the heat receiver of a downstream Stirling engine, which then converts the
thermal energy into mechanical power or electricity. Efficiencies of over
30 per cent are achieved. There are prototype systems at the Platform Solar, for example, in
Almeria, Spain. These plants are particularly suitable as stand-alone systems. They also offer
the possibility of interconnecting several individual systems to create a solar farm, thus
meeting an electricity demand from ten kW to several MW.

Solar Pond: - A salinity gradient solar pond is an integral collection and storage device of
solar energy. By virtue of having built-in thermal energy storage, it can be used irrespective
of time and season. In an ordinary pond or lake, when the sun's rays heat up the water this
heated water, being lighter, rises to the surface and loses its heat to the atmosphere. The net
result is that the pond water remains at nearly atmospheric temperature. The solar pond
technology inhibits this phenomena by dissolving salt into the bottom layer of this pond,
making it too heavy to rise to the surface, even when hot. The salt concentration increases
with depth, thereby forming a salinity gradient. The sunlight which reaches the bottom of the
pond remains entrapped there. The useful thermal energy is then withdrawn from the solar
pond in the form of hot brine. The pre-requisites for establishing solar ponds are: a large tract
of land (it could be barren), a lot of sun shine, and cheaply available salt (such as Sodium
Chloride) or bittern.

Solar Updraft Tower: -The solar updraft tower (SUT) is a renewable-energy power plant for
generating electricity from solar power. Sunshine heats the air beneath a very wide
greenhouse-like roofed collector structure surrounding the central base of a very
tall chimney tower. The resulting convection causes a hot air updraft in the tower by
the chimney effect. This airflow drives wind turbines placed in the chimney updraft or around
the chimney base to produce electricity. Plans for scaled-up versions of demonstration
models will allow significant power generation.

Solar
Tower

Dish/
Stirlin
g

Parabolic
trough

Fresnel
Collector

Solar
Pond

Solar
updraft
Tower

Typical
Capacity(MW)

30-200

0.01-1

10-200

10-200

0.2-5

30-200

Real Capacity(MW)

10

0.025

80

0.3

0.05

Concentration
Factor

600-1000

Up to
3000

50-90

25-50

Efficiency in %

10-28

15-25

10-23

9-17

0.7-1.2

Operation Mode

grid

grid/
island

grid

grid

grid

grid

Concentration factors and technical parameters of selected solar thermal power generation
technologies.

2. Solar Tower Power Station

A solar power tower, or central receiver, generates electricity from sunlight by
focusing concentrated solar energy on a tower-mounted heat exchanger (receiver). This
system uses hundreds to thousands of flat, sun-tracking mirrors called heliostats to reflect and
concentrate the sun's energy onto a central receiver tower. The energy can be concentrated as
much as 1,500 times that of the energy coming in from the sun.
Energy losses from thermal-energy transport are minimized because solar energy is
being directly transferred by reflection from the heliostats to a single receiver, rather than
being moved through a transfer medium to one central location, as with parabolic troughs.
Power towers must be large to be economical. This is a promising technology for
large-scale grid-connected power plants. Power tower technology is in the early stages of
development compared to parabolic trough technology.

Main principals and components:

Central receiver systems in the tower
Mirrors tracking the course of the sun in two axes (Heliostats)
Heliostats reflect the direct solar radiation onto a receiver, centrally positioned on a tower.
In the receiver, radiation energy is converted into heat and transferred to a heat transfer
medium
(E.g. air, liquid salt, water/steam).
This heat drives a conventional thermal engine.
To ensure constant parameters and a constant flow of the working medium also at times of
varying
Solar radiation, either a heat storage can be incorporated into the system or additional
firing using e.g. fossil fuels (like natural gas) or renewable energy (like biofuels) can be used.

Heliostats: Heliostats are reflecting surfaces provided with a two-axis tracking system which ensures
that the incident sunlight is reflected towards a certain target point throughout the day.
Heliostats commonly concentrate sunlight by means of a curved surface or an appropriate
orientation of partial areas, so that radiation flux density is increased.

Faceted glass/metal heliostat.

Metal membrane heliostat

Heliostats consist of:

The reflector surface (e.g. mirrors, mirror facets, other sunlight-reflecting surfaces)
A sun-tracking system provided with drive motors
Foundations and control electronics.
The individual heliostats orientation is commonly calculated on the basis of:
The current position of the sun
The spatial position of the heliostats
The target point.
The target value is communicated electronically to the respective drive motors via a
Communication line. This information is updated every few seconds.
The concentrator surface size of currently available heliostats varies between 20 and
150 m2; to date, the largest heliostat surface amounts to 200 m.
Controller: Heliostats are usually centrally controlled and centrally supplied with electrical
energy.
As an alternative, autonomous heliostats have been developed which are controlled
locally.
There, the energy required for the control processor and the drives is provided by
Photovoltaic cells mounted parallel to the Reflector surface.

Heliostat fields: The layout of a heliostat field is determined by technical and economic optimization:
Heliostats located closest to the tower present the lowest shading, Heliostats placed north
on the northern hemisphere (or south on the southern hemisphere) show the lowest cosine
losses.
Heliostats placed far off the tower, by contrast, require highly precise tracking and,
depending on the geographic location, have to be placed farer from the neighbouring
heliostats.
Notes:
Cosine losses: -of the earth
The cost of the land, the tracking and the orientation precision thus determine the economic
size of the field.
For about half the cost of the solar components