A Concept for Future Parabolic Trough Based Solar Thermal Power Plants

Abstract

After periods of stagnancy, the production of electricity from Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) currently takes a clear turn towards technology improvement and market penetration. Already in the 80’s a total plant capacity of 354 MWel has been installed in California’s Mojave Desert, which has been successfully operated until today. Only broad subsidies as granted first of all by the Spanish government or legal obligations initiated a recent boom in project development, and, in the meantime, various plants are in erection phase or already in operation. They are mostly based on parabolic trough collector technology with indirect steam generation. As one alternative the direct steam generation is discussed, which has already been proven in a demonstration loop on the Plataforma Solar de Almeria in more than 6000 operating hours. In the paper a brief overview over the current status of the direct steam generation is given and a basic plant layout for a 50 MWel direct steam generating parabolic trough plant with a 6 h thermal storage system is analyzed.