Saturday, 1 November 2008

Some more solar power insights

I really like one specific sales technique - when you explain to the customer what your product is worth, by describing it in units and words that have an obvious meaning for everybody, regardless of their knowledge.
See here 10 important reasons, which the company Solel Solar Systems gives, explaining why power from the sun makes sense to invest in.

Here is one product you would need if you want to build a solar power plant - highly reflective foil:


Solar Energy has always been there. Hence, using it for heat production is not completely new idea. It has been there for a while and has been put into implementation.
Here are some examples of CSP plants:

Kramer Junction, California, USA:





Solar One, Nevada, USA
This power plants uses parabolic troughs as thermal solar concentrators.





Solar Two, Barstow, California, USA:
This power plant uses mirrors, which move tracking the sun light, similarly to plants :)



Seville, Spain:
All the heat from the sun's radiation is concentrated in the top of the tower (Receiver), where the working fluid is heated to become steam. The following process is the same as in most electricity power plants - the so called Rankine cycle.





And the world's largest solar plant, Mojave Desert, Israel:



And here is how they remove desert dust from the huge mirrors:)



The main question in an engineer's mind about production of electricity is on first place: 'How to generate heat?'. One obvious answer is there, staring at us :) The sun's radiation is our perfect completely renewable source of heat, if we only want to use it. And, one more green point, completely CO2 free :)

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