How Solar Thermal Power Plant Works

Solar thermal power plants use the sun as a heat source.

How solar thermal power plant works.

In a solar thermal power plant this is normally achieved with mirrors. The ivanpah solar electric generating system is a concentrated solar thermal plant in the mojave desert it is located at the base of clark mountain in california across the state line from primm nevada the plant has a gross capacity of 392 megawatts mw. The most common type of solar thermal power plants including those plants in california s mojave desert use a parabolic trough design to collect the sun s radiation. The andasol power plant in spain is the first commercial solar thermal power plant using molten salt for heat storage and nighttime generation.

That in turn builds steam that helps to feed a turbine and generator to produce. It deploys 173 500 heliostats each with two mirrors focusing solar energy on boilers located on three 459 ft 139 9 m tall solar power. Solar thermal power systems may also have a thermal energy storage system component that allows the solar collector system to heat an energy storage system during the day and the heat from the storage system is used to produce electricity in the evening or during cloudy weather. This is the most common form of a solar power plant that is characterized by their use of fields of either linear u shaped.

These collectors are known as linear concentrator systems and the largest are able to generate 80 megawatts of electricity source. Solar thermal power plants may also be hybrid systems that use. Department of energy they are shaped like a half pipe you d see used for snowboarding or. Solar thermal power plant is combination of solar energy and thermal energy.

It came on line march 2009. Solar thermal power plants are electricity generation plants that utilize energy from the sun to heat a fluid to a high temperature this fluid then transfers its heat to water which then becomes superheated steam this steam is then used to turn turbines in a power plant and this mechanical energy is converted into electricity by a generator this type of generation is essentially the same as. Solar thermal technologies capture the heat energy from the sun and use it for heating and or the production of electricity. The sun radiations used as fuel in the power plant.

On july 4 2011 a company in spain celebrated an historic moment for the solar industry. 2 1 linear parabolic trough solar thermal and solar dish power plants. Torresol s 19 9 mw concentrating solar power plant became the first ever to. Solar energy is converted into the heat or thermal energy which further use as mechanical energy to operate the turbine and generators.

Solar thermal power plants. This kind of power plant requires a very large area for operation. Learn more about solar thermal a.