Concentrated solar power
Concentrated solar power, also called concentrating solar power or concentrated solar thermal, involves systems that collect solar heat for multiple purposes like cooking, desalination, or the generation of electric solar power, by using mirrors to concentrate a large area of sunlight toward a receiver.
Electricity is generated when the concentrated light is converted to heat, which drives a heat engine, either Stirling engine or a steam turbine as in fossil thermal power stations, via an electrical power generator, or powers a thermochemical reaction.
In combination with thermal energy storage, concentrated solar power can produce electricity also during the night, to compete against the combination of battery energy storage systems fed by photovoltaics, the predominant solar power technology, with about 1 terawatt of global installed nameplate capacity in 2022.
By comparison, as of 2021, global installed capacity was less than 1% as concentrated solar power stood at only 6.8 GW. As of 2023, the total was 8.1 GW, with the inclusion of three new CSP projects in construction in China and in Dubai in the UAE. The U.S.-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which maintains a global database of CSP plants, counts 6.6 GW of operational capacity and another 1.5 GW under construction.
Comparison between CSP and other electricity sources
As a thermal energy generating power station, CSP has more in common with thermal power stations such as coal, gas, or geothermal. A CSP plant can incorporate thermal energy storage, which stores energy either in the form of sensible heat or as latent heat, which enables these plants to continue supplying electricity whenever it is needed, day or night. This makes CSP a dispatchable form of solar. Dispatchable renewable energy is particularly valuable in places where there is already a high penetration of photovoltaics, such as California, because demand for electric power peaks near sunset just as PV capacity ramps down.CSP is often compared to photovoltaic solar since they both use solar energy. While solar PV experienced huge growth during the 2010s due to falling prices, solar CSP growth has been slow due to technical difficulties and high prices. In 2017, CSP represented less than 2% of worldwide installed capacity of solar electricity plants. However, CSP can more easily store energy during the night, making it more competitive with dispatchable generators and baseload plants.
The DEWA project in Dubai, under construction in 2019, held the world record for lowest CSP price in 2017 at US$73 per MWh for its 700 MW combined trough and tower project: 600 MW of trough, 100 MW of tower with 15 hours of thermal energy storage daily. Base-load CSP tariff in the extremely dry Atacama region of Chile reached below $50/MWh in 2017 auctions.
History
A legend from later centuries has it that Archimedes not only used the Claw of Archimedes, but also a "burning glass" to concentrate sunlight on the invading Roman fleet and repel them from the Siege of Syracuse. In 1973 a Greek scientist, Dr. Ioannis Sakkas, curious about whether Archimedes' heat ray could really have destroyed the Roman fleet in 212 BC, lined up nearly 60 Greek sailors, each holding an oblong mirror tipped to catch the sun's rays and direct them at a tar-covered plywood silhouette away. The ship caught fire after a few minutes; however, historians continue to doubt the Archimedes story.In 1866, Auguste Mouchout used a parabolic trough to produce steam for the first solar steam engine. The first patent for a solar collector was obtained by the Italian Alessandro Battaglia in Genoa, Italy, in 1886. Over the following years, inventors such as John Ericsson and Frank Shuman developed concentrating solar-powered devices for irrigation, refrigeration, and locomotion. In 1913 Shuman finished a parabolic solar thermal energy station in Maadi, Egypt for irrigation. The first solar-power system using a mirror dish was built by Dr. R.H. Goddard, who was already well known for his research on liquid-fueled rockets and wrote an article in 1929 in which he asserted that all the previous obstacles had been addressed.
Professor Giovanni Francia designed and built the first concentrated-solar plant, which entered into operation in Sant'Ilario, near Genoa, Italy in 1968. This plant had the architecture of today's power tower plants, with a solar receiver in the center of a field of solar collectors. The plant was able to produce 1 MW with superheated steam at 100 bar and 500 °C. The 10 MW Solar One power tower was developed in Southern California in 1981. Solar One was converted into Solar Two in 1995, implementing a new design with a molten salt mixture as the receiver working fluid and as a storage medium. The molten salt approach proved effective, and Solar Two operated successfully until it was decommissioned in 1999. The parabolic-trough technology of the nearby Solar Energy Generating Systems, begun in 1984, was more workable. The 354 MW SEGS was the largest solar power plant in the world until 2014.
No commercial concentrated solar was constructed from 1990, when SEGS was completed, until 2006, when the Compact linear Fresnel reflector system at Liddell Power Station in Australia was built. Few other plants were built with this design, although the 5 MW Kimberlina Solar Thermal Energy Plant opened in 2009.
In 2007, 75 MW Nevada Solar One was built, a trough design and the first large plant since SEGS. Between 2010 and 2013, Spain built over 40 parabolic trough systems, size constrained at no more than 50 MW by the support scheme. Where not bound in other countries, the manufacturers have adopted up to 200 MW size for a single unit, with a cost soft point around 125 MW for a single unit.
Due to the success of Solar Two, a commercial power plant, called Solar Tres Power Tower, was built in Spain in 2011, later renamed Gemasolar Thermosolar Plant. Gemasolar's results paved the way for further plants of its type. Ivanpah Solar Power Facility was constructed at the same time but without thermal storage, using natural gas to preheat water each morning.
Most concentrated solar power plants use the parabolic trough design, instead of the power tower or Fresnel systems. There have also been variations of parabolic trough systems like the integrated solar combined cycle which combines troughs and conventional fossil fuel heat systems.
CSP was originally treated as a competitor to photovoltaics, and Ivanpah was built without energy storage, although Solar Two included several hours of thermal storage. By 2015, prices for photovoltaic plants had fallen and PV commercial power was selling for of contemporary CSP contracts. However, increasingly, CSP was being bid with 3 to 12 hours of thermal energy storage, making CSP a dispatchable form of solar energy. As such, it is increasingly seen as competing with natural gas and PV with batteries for flexible, dispatchable power.
Current technology
CSP is used to produce electricity. Concentrated solar technology systems use mirrors or lenses with tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight onto a small area. The concentrated light is then used as heat or as a heat source for a conventional power plant. The solar concentrators used in CSP systems can often also be used to provide industrial process heating or cooling, such as in solar air conditioning.Concentrating technologies exist in four optical types, namely parabolic trough, dish, concentrating linear Fresnel reflector, and solar power tower. Parabolic trough and concentrating linear Fresnel reflectors are classified as linear focus collector types, while dish and solar tower are point focus types. Linear focus collectors achieve medium concentration factors, and point focus collectors achieve high concentration factors. Although simple, these solar concentrators are quite far from the theoretical maximum concentration. For example, the parabolic-trough concentration gives about of the theoretical maximum for the design acceptance angle, that is, for the same overall tolerances for the system. Approaching the theoretical maximum may be achieved by using more elaborate concentrators based on nonimaging optics.
Different types of concentrators produce different peak temperatures and correspondingly varying thermodynamic efficiencies due to differences in the way that they track the sun and focus light. New innovations in CSP technology are leading systems to become more and more cost-effective.
In 2023, Australia's national science agency CSIRO tested a CSP arrangement in which tiny ceramic particles fall through the beam of concentrated solar energy, the ceramic particles capable of storing a greater amount of heat than molten salt, while not requiring a container that would diminish heat transfer.
Parabolic trough
A parabolic trough consists of a linear parabolic reflector that concentrates light onto a receiver positioned along the reflector's focal line. The receiver is a tube positioned at the longitudinal focal line of the parabolic mirror and filled with a working fluid. The reflector follows the sun during the daylight hours by tracking along a single axis. A working fluid is heated to as it flows through the receiver and is then used as a heat source for a power generation system. Trough systems are the most developed CSP technology. The Solar Energy Generating Systems plants in California, some of the longest-running in the world until their 2021 closure; Acciona's Nevada Solar One near Boulder City, Nevada; and Andasol, Europe's first commercial parabolic trough plant are representative, along with Plataforma Solar de Almería's SSPS-DCS test facilities in Spain.Enclosed trough
The design encapsulates the solar thermal system within a greenhouse-like glasshouse. The glasshouse creates a protected environment to withstand the elements that can negatively impact reliability and efficiency of the solar thermal system. Lightweight curved solar-reflecting mirrors are suspended from the ceiling of the glasshouse by wires. A single-axis tracking system positions the mirrors to retrieve the optimal amount of sunlight. The mirrors concentrate the sunlight and focus it on a network of stationary steel pipes, also suspended from the glasshouse structure. Water is carried throughout the length of the pipe, which is boiled to generate steam when intense solar radiation is applied. Sheltering the mirrors from the wind allows them to achieve higher temperature rates and prevents dust from building up on the mirrors.GlassPoint Solar, the company that created the Enclosed Trough design, states its technology can produce heat for Enhanced Oil Recovery for about $5 per in sunny regions, compared to between $10 and $12 for other conventional solar thermal technologies.