Concentrated Solar Power Technologies

To meet projected future demand, Concentrated Solar Power Technologies provide electricity on demand and also have the ability to store energy to an extent, can help utilities avoid the costs of building new power plants by making electricity more valuable to the grid.

Concentrated Solar Power

Concentrated solar power is a broad collection of technologies that includes parabolic trough, linear fresnel reflector, power tower and dish engine respectively.

Concentrated Solar Power System utilizes combinaton of mirror or lenses as reflectors to concentrate direct beam component of solar radiation onto a receiver that consist of heat transfer fluid (such as water, oil or molten salts) to transfer heat collected by constantly tracking the sun in the solar field to the power block, where steam is generated with very high temperature and pressure to drive a turbine that produce electricity.

Parabolic Trough

(Line Focusing Type) Linear Fresnel Reflector

Power Tower

(Point Focusing Type) Dish Engine

Figure 1 (All above): Concentrated Solar Power technologies

Concentrated Solar Power Initiatives in India

World’s largest Concentrated Solar Power Plant by Linear Fresnel Reflector Technology is in India.

In India, availability of direct beam solar radiation is good enough especially in Rajasthan and Gujarat to develop concentrated solar power plants. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is planning to develop 175GW of power from renewable energy sources under Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd has launched solar guidelines, which is an initiative under Indo-German Energy Programme. To cater to India’s rising industrial heating needs, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has collaborated with United Nations Development Programme to enable greater use of concentrated solar heat. National Institute of Solar Energy, an autonomous institute under Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Govt of India, has set up state-of-the-art solar thermal technologies for different end use applications such as power generation, air-conditioning, space heating, cooking, cold storage, process heat desalination, hot water etc.

Figure 2: Power generation through Concentrated Solar Power Technologies

Figure 3: Direct Beam Solar Radiation across India

Conclusion

Concentrated solar power is heating up India’s solar thermal market under National Solar Mission with improved ground solar radiation data provided by Centre for Wind Energy technology, Chennai. Thus, concentrated solar power can play an essential role in achieving secure and diversified energy future for India by providing supplemental electricity during times of peak usage and ensuring grid stability.

If you want to share thoughts or feedback then please leave a comment below.