The US is trying to revive solar thermal power technology
The American industry is pushing for a new
lease of life to solar thermal power technology. As a first step in this direction, Solar One,
a solar thermal power project located in
California is being renovated (Solar Today,
Vol 9, No 2).
The Luz International Company which set
up and operated the Solar One plant near
Barstow in the Mojave desert in California,
had filed for bankruptcy in 1991 because of
the withdrawal of tax credits and incentive
by the government. Nevertheless, the plant
continued to be operated by a new consortium. and the US government now claims
that the project is viable.
Technological modifications are being
carried out in Solar One and it has been
renamed as Solar Two. The 10 mw advanced
solar thermal power plant would meet the
power needs of 5,000 people. The US $48.5
million project would be managed by
Southern California Edison which leads a
consortium of utilities, government agencies and research organisations. The US
department of energy will provide 50 per
cent of the funding.
Solar thermal power plants use sunrays to heat a fluid from which heat transfer systems are used to generate steam from
which drives a generator. There are 3 main
types of systems in use for concentrating
and collecting diffused sunlight: the parabolic trough, of which about 350 mw peak
capacity has been set up in southern California, the parabolic dish, and the central receiver. The central receiver system is
the most recent of the 3 and claimed to be
the most efficient.
Solar Two will draw its energy by
using the central receiver system - focusing sun's rays through 1926 heliostats,
each made up of multiple suntracking mirrors, on to a central tower. Energy from
the central tower will heat molten salts
that can be stored for use when electrical
power is required.
Solar Two is expected to become operational by early 1996. With the experience
gained from these project, the US Dept of
Energy expects that the utilities will be
setting up as many as 4 central receiver
plants each of 100 mw capacity by 1997-98.
rays to heat a fluid from which heat trans- With promise of this new
technology multinational companies,
the Indian ministry of nonconventional
energy sources has also been trying
to get World Bank assistance to set up
an experimental solar thermal power plant in
Rajasthan.
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