SOLAR POWER TOWER

A Seminar Report
Submitted by
SARATH C M
In partial fulfillment for the award of the Degree of
BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
in
ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

MAR ATHANASIUS COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
KOTHAMANGALAM,KERALA,INDIA 686 666
Affiliated to
Mahatma Gandhi University
Kottayam, Kerala, India

October 2016
 DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

MAR ATHANASIUS COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

KOTHAMANGALAM

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the seminar report entitled

SOLAR POWER TOWER

Submitted by Mr. SARATH C M, Reg. No. 13009130 towards partial

fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Degree of Bachelor of

Technology in Electrical and Electronics from Mahatma Gandhi Univer-

sity, Kottayam for the year 2016 is a bonafide record of the work carried

out by him under our supervision and guidance.

Prof. Kavitha Issac Prof. Sija Gopinathan Prof. Elizabeth Sebastian

Seminar Guide Seminar Co-ordinator Head of Department

04-10-2016 Dept. Seal

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is a great pleasure to acknowledge all those who have assisted and supported me
for successfully completing my seminar.

First of all, I thank God Almighty for his blessings as it is only through his grace
that I was able to complete my seminar successfully.

I am deeply indebted to Dr. Soosan George T, Principal, Mar Athanasius College of

Engineering. Her encouragement and patience will be a guiding spirit in all endeavors
of my future.

I express my deep sense of gratitude to Prof. Elizabeth Sebastian, Head of Electri-

cal & Electronics Engineering Department for the valuable guidance as well as timely
advice which helped me a lot in doing the seminar successfully.

I also extend my deep sense of gratitude to seminar co-ordinator and my faculty

advisor, Prof. Sija Gopinathan and seminar guide, Prof.Kavitha Issac,EEE Dept. for
their creative suggestions during the preparation of the seminar.

I take this opportunity to extend my sincere thanks to all the members and faculty
of the Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering for sharing their valuable
critical comments during the preparation of the seminar.

I whole - heartedly thank all my classmates, for their valuable suggestions and for
the spirit of healthy competition that existed between us.

i
 ABSTRACT

The sun’s rays, or solar energy, have been used since the beginning of time and is
vital to all living things. In addition to solar energy being a constant resource, heat
and electricity are other forms of energy that can be made from solar energy. The
largest advantage of solar energy is that it is a free and unlimited source of energy.
Solar energy is also the cleanest energy source that does not compromise or add to
global warming. The solar tower is a concept invented with an intention to generate
efficient green energy. The solar power tower, also known as ’central tower’ power
plants or power towers, is a type of solar furnace using a tower to receive the focused
sunlight. It uses an array of flat, movable mirrors (heliostats) to focus the sun’s rays
upon a collector tower. Concentrated solar thermal is seen as one viable solution for
renewable, pollution-free energy. Early designs used these focused rays to heat water,
and used the resulting steam to power a turbine. Newer designs using liquid sodium
have been demonstrated, and systems using molten salts (40% potassium nitrate, 60%
sodium nitrate) as the working fluids are now in operation. These working fluids have
high heat capacity, which can be used to store the energy before using it to boil water
to drive turbines.

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CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION 1

2 WORKING PRINCIPLE 3
2.1 COMPONENTS OF SOLAR POWER TOWER . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 WORKING OF SOLAR POWER TOWER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3 MOLTEN SALT 5
3.1 WHAT IS MOLTEN SALT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.2 PROPERTIES OF MOLTEN SALT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

4 COMPARISON OF TROUGH AND TOWER STORAGE PLANTS 7

4.1 COMMERCIAL TROUGH PLANTS WITH STORAGE . . . . . . . . 7
4.2 TOWER PLANTS WITH STORAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.3 SALT REQUIREMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.4 AIR COOLING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

5 GEMASOLAR PLANT CHARACTERISTICS 10

5.1 ADVANCES IN MOLTEN SALT STORAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.2 ADVANTAGES OF SOLAR POWER TOWER . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

6 CONCLUSION 13

REFERENCES 14

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LIST OF FIGURES

1.1 Solar energy available for power generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2.1 Block Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2.2 Day and Night operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3.1 Potassium and sodium nitrate prior to the melting process. . . . . . . . 6

4.1 Comparison of Trough and Solar Power Tower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

5.1 Characteristics of Gemasolar Power Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Solar power towers generate electric power from sunlight by focusing concentrated solar
radiation on a tower-mounted heat ex-changer (receiver). The technology has been the
subject of research and development in the United States since the mid-1970s and the
Solar Two project represents the culmination of that effort. Although power towers are
commercially less mature than parabolic trough systems, a number of component and
system experiments have been fielded around the world in the last 20 years, demon-
strating the engineering feasibility and economic potential of the technology. Since
the early 1980s, power towers have been fielded in Russia, Italy, Spain, Japan, France,
and the United States (Meinecke and Bohn, 1995).A solar power tower is a type of
indirect solar power technology. In Solar power tower, electricity is produced from
the radiation of the sun. Figure 1.1 shows the abundant availability of solar energy
that can be captured and converted into power directly with Photovoltaic solar panels
(PV) or indirectly by solar thermal conversion using Concentrated solar power (CSP)
technology. CSP technology uses thermal energy from the sun to heat a liquid, such
as water or molten salt. This heat transferring liquid is used to vaporize water to
the point of steam, which is then used to generate electricity in a traditional turbine-
generator..Solar thermal energy converts solar energy directly into electricity. Power
towers capture and focus the sun’s thermal energy with thousands of tracking mirrors
in roughly a two square mile field. A tower resides in the center of the heliostat field.
The heliostats focus concentrated sunlight on a receiver which sits on top of the tower.
Within the receiver the concentrated sunlight heats molten salt to over 1,000 F. The
heated molten salt then flows into a thermal storage tank where it is stored, maintain-
ing 98% thermal efficiency, and eventually pumped to a steam generator.

In concentrating solar power (CSP) systems, numerous nominally flat, sun-tracking

mirrors, known as heliostats, focus sunlight onto a receiver at the top of a tall tower.
Two commercial solar tower system configurations are in active commercial develop-
ment today. In one configuration, called the indirect configuration, a working fluid
other than water or gas is heated in the receiver, held in a TES system if present,
and then sent to a steam generator train to produce steam that, in turn, drives a con-
ventional turbine generator to produce electricity. Current commercial designs using
this concept are using molten nitrate salts as the working fluid because of its superior
heat-transfer and energy-storage capabilities.

The key components are the heliostat field and receiver. They vary in configuration

1
Solar Power Tower

Figure 1.1: Solar energy available for power generation

and capacity depending on the system type and commercial design decisions. In a
molten salt power tower plant configuration, a thermal energy storage (TES) system is
included to provide dispatch ability, which results in the ability to shift power output
to meet grid demand patterns and to produce a consistent output during intermittent
solar conditions. During summer months, for example, solar plants typically operate
for up to 10 hours a day at full-rated electric output without TES. However, signifi-
cant additional full load generation hours can be efficiently added or shifted if TES is
available, allowing a solar plant to meet the morning and evening winter peaks that
many utilities in the southwest United States experience. TES is integral to molten
salt power tower technology because molten salt is used as the working fluid in the
receiver.

Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, M.A.C.E 2

CHAPTER 2

WORKING PRINCIPLE

Solar power tower works on the principle of conversion of solar thermal energy into
electricity. It captures the sunlight and generates thermal energy by focusing it to a
receiver. This thermal energy is utilized in the power generation unit.

2.1 COMPONENTS OF SOLAR POWER TOWER

Solar power tower have mainly five components: (a) Heliostat System. (b) Receiver
System. (c) Thermal Storage System. (d) Steam Generator System. (e) Electric
Generation System.

Figure 2.1: Block Diagram

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Solar Power Tower

2.2 WORKING OF SOLAR POWER TOWER

Figure 2.1 shows the basic block diagram of a solar power tower. Solar towers use
heliostats (or dual-axis sun-tracking mirrors) to reflect the suns heat onto a single
receiver point. This technology is favored because it can generate more heat than
other technologies, has great economies of scale, and can integrate storage. That heat
could be used for industrial processes, such as steam production, as well as generating
electricity. Generally, the more heat that is created, the more efficient the plant. The
heliostats track the suns movements through the day. In older days, water is heated
directly to create steam and drive a turbine, now molten salt is used instead of water
because of higher heat capacity, which is piped through the receiver located at the top
of a tower, which is 150-250m high. Two storage tanks are used. A cold tank stores
the salt at 280C, pumps it up to the top of the tower where it circulates through the
receiver, where the salts temperature is taken to 565C and it is then piped back down
to the hot storage tank. There, the energy is stored for use at a later time or released
immediately into a heat exchanger that produces steam that powers a standard steam
generator. The day and night operation of a solar power tower system is shown in the
figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2: Day and Night operation

Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, M.A.C.E 4

CHAPTER 3

MOLTEN SALT

Solar power tower uses molten salt as the heat transferring medium. The thermal en-
ergy absorbed by the receiver is transferred to the steam generator with the help of
molten salt.

3.1 WHAT IS MOLTEN SALT

Molten salt refers to a salt, which is normally a solid at standard temperature and
pressure (STP), being in the liquid phase due to elevated temperature. A salt that is
normally liquid even at STP is usually called a room temperature ionic liquid, although
technically molten salts are a class of ionic liquids. It uses a Sodium Nitrite/Nitrate
mixture to absorb and store the sun’s heat from the focus of many mirrors in the desert
upon a central tower. The heat from the salt is then transferred via a heat exchanger
to produce steam to drive a conventional steam turbine and generator to produce elec-
tricity from the sun.

3.2 PROPERTIES OF MOLTEN SALT

One of the most important characteristics of using a thermal storage system is the very
high efficiency of the storage, with an annual efficiency of 99% possible for commercial
plants. The only losses come from, 1. slow heat loss through the tank walls, which is
kept to a minimum via insulation, 2. The heat exchange process between mediums,
i.e., salt to steam for towers, or oil to salt, salt to oil, and then to steam, in the case of
a trough system. The Molten Salt is a eutectic mixture of 60% NANO3-40% KNO3.
These salts are widely used as fertilizer, they are low cost and available in large quan-
tities. Their temperature varies from 290 C to 550 C when the solar field is operating.

1. Sodium Nitrate (NaNO3): 60% w.

2. Potassium Nitrate (KNO3): 40% w.
3. Operating temperatures: 260-550C.
4. Nonflammable and nontoxic fluid.
5. Low cost fluid - Good heat transport.

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Solar Power Tower

Figure 3.1: Potassium and sodium nitrate prior to the melting process.

6. Freezing Temperature: 238C.

7. Melting Temperature: 221C.
8. Heat of Fusion: 161 kJ/kg.
9. Volume Change on Fusion: 4.6%.

Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, M.A.C.E 6

CHAPTER 4

COMPARISON OF TROUGH
AND TOWER STORAGE
PLANTS

Trough and tower concentrators differ in the method of transferring heat to the molten
salt. Fig. 4.1 compares the optical operation of parabolic trough concentrators and
power towers, or central receiver concentrators. Parabolic troughs have a linear focus
and low concentration ratio (less than 100), while power towers have a point focus and
high concentration ratio (greater than 1000) the geometric concentration ratio being
the ratio of the area of the receiver aperture to the area of mirror aperture. These
factors influence the heat transfer to the salt, as described below.

4.1 COMMERCIAL TROUGH PLANTS WITH STOR-

AGE
It uses parabolic trough mirrors to heat oil up to 393 C (the thermal limit of the oil)
with concentrated Solar power, some of this oil is fed directly to the oil-to-steam heat
exchanger to produce power straight away. The rest of the oil is passed through an
oil-to-salt heat exchanger to heat molten salt for storage in an insulated tank at 386
C. Power can then be produced on demand the molten salt heats the oil, which in turn
produces super heated steam to feed the turbine/generator set at 100 bar and 377 C.
The cooled salt at 292 C then returns to the cold tank, where it remains until it is
reheated the next morning.

4.2 TOWER PLANTS WITH STORAGE

The operating principle of a molten salt power tower, which uses molten salt as both
the heat transfer fluid and the storage medium. Cold molten salt at 292 C is pumped to
the receiver at the top of the tower, where it is heated by concentrated solar radiation
from the field of heliostat mirrors. Hot salt at 565 C travels back down the tower and

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Solar Power Tower

Figure 4.1: Comparison of Trough and Solar Power Tower

is stored in the insulated hot salt tank. When power is required, hot salt from the
storage tank is passed through the heat exchanger to create super heated steam at 535
C and 100 bar in the case of Solar Two, but 540 C for commercial plants to turn the
turbine and generate electricity. The cooled salt then returns to the cold tank.Towers
can achieve higher temperatures than the current trough technology which is limited
both by heat transfer oil degradation and the lower concentration ratio of the trough
concentrators. Higher operating temperatures mean that less salt is required to store
the same amount of energy, the steam cycle can operate at higher efficiency, and air
cooling can be used with a lower performance penalty, as described below.

4.3 SALT REQUIREMENT

The hot molten salt is stored at 565 C for power towers, as opposed to 386 C for
troughs. The heat stored is proportional to the difference between hot and cold tank
temperatures. In both cases, the cold salt is stored at 292 C. This gives a temperature
difference between hot and cold tanks of 273 C for towers and 94 C for troughs. There-
fore, a tower plant can store almost three times as much energy in the same amount
of salt as a trough plant. Steam cycle efficiency: The steam (Rankine) cycle efficiency
is also related to the maximum steam temperature. Therefore, at 100 bar, the 540 C
steam from the tower plant is much preferred to the 377 C steam from the trough plant.

Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, M.A.C.E 8

Solar Power Tower

4.4 AIR COOLING

Concentrating solar plants are often sited in locations with limited water. This makes
air cooling an attractive option for the steam cycle. Air cooling, however, causes
a performance penalty on the steam cycle, and again this is linked to the maximum
steam temperature. The penalty for towers is around 1.3 %, while for troughs it is 4.5%
5% relative to power production with wet cooling. The elimination of heat transfer oil
from the plant not only allows higher temperatures to be attained, but it also leads to
simplification of the plant design and cost savings. There is no longer a need for both
oil-to-steam and oil-to-salt heat exchangers, only salt-to-steam heat exchangers.

Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, M.A.C.E 9

CHAPTER 5

GEMASOLAR PLANT
CHARACTERISTICS

The Gemasolar plant, the first commercial power tower to operate with molten-salt
storage exhibits the advantages of tower plants with storage as outlined

Figure 5.1: Characteristics of Gemasolar Power Plant

5.1 ADVANCES IN MOLTEN SALT STORAGE

The application of molten-salt storage to power towers is not the end of the story for
molten salt. Here we discuss some near-term advances in the technology.
1. Up Scaling Molten-Salt Power Towers On the other side of the Atlantic, United
States-based Solar Reserve is also developing molten-salt power towers. Solar Re-
serve’s first project is set to be their 110-MWe Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project

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Solar Power Tower

near Tonopah, NV. Crescent Dunes will be provisioned with 8 h of molten-salt storage,
and will produce 480,000 MWh of electricity annually. In May 2011, Solar Reserve
received a U.S. Department of Energy offer for a US$ 737 million loan guarantee, and
construction is due to commence by August 2011. Developers Solar Millennium have
also recently entered the tower-plus-storage market.

2. Advanced Salt Mixtures As mentioned previously, the salt currently used in molten-
salt plants is a 60% 40% mix of sodium and Potassium nitrate. To avoid the crystal-
lization point of this salt mix, the molten salt is operated between 292 C and 600 C
(or 565 C due to piping material limitations).Various research groups are investigating
ternary, Quaternary, and even five-component salt mixtures with extended working
temperature ranges. As the energy stored in a salt is proportional to the tempera-
ture difference, an extended temperature range means that more energy can be stored
in the same amount of salt. A lower freezing point also reduces the risk of freeze events.

3. Thermocline Salt Tanks,Current commercial molten-salt storage systems all use

atwo-tank system. Cold salt at 292 C is stored in one tank, and once heated by the
solar field, the hot salt is stored in a separate tank at 386 C (trough plant) or 565 C
(tower plant). These salt storage tanks can be quite size able, especially at parabolic
trough plants. For example, for 7.5 h of storage at the 50-MWe Andasol-1 plant, both
the hot tank and cold tank are sized to accommodate almost the entire inventory of
28,500 tons of molten salt leading to a tank diameter of 38.5 m and height of 14 m. At
the Torresol Gemasolar power tower, 15 h of storage for the 19.9-MWe plant is provided
by 8500 tons of salt.Again, both the hot tank and the cold tank can house almost the
entire inventory, each having a diameter of 23 m and a height of 10.5 m. In either case,
the total tank capacity is almost twice the volume of the salt inventory, with the slight
difference allowing for tank heels. In a two-tank system, both tanks are never more
than half-full at the same time. Therefore, building a single tank that contained both
the cold salt and the hot salt at once a thermocline tank could produce substantial
cost savings. This is not only because just one tank would need to be constructed, of
roughly the same size as each tank in the two-tank system, but also due to cost savings
in the auxiliary piping and equipment, and in some cases, are duct ion in salt inven-
tory. Both Sandia National Laboratories in the United States and SENER in Spain are
developing such tanks, but each is using a different method to maintain a temperature
difference between the hot salt at the top of the tank and the cold salt at the bottom.

5.2 ADVANTAGES OF SOLAR POWER TOWER

1. Solar power towers are easy to implement compared to many other forms of energy
generation.
2. Solar power towers also have a negligible effect on the environment, even compared
to other forms of renewable energy.
3. Solar power towers are also cost effective and are becoming even more cost effective.
A report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that by 2020 the
levelised cost of energy produced by solar power towers could be as little as 5.47 cents

Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, M.A.C.E 11

Solar Power Tower

per kWh.
4. Another obvious advantage of solar power towers over many other conventional
means of energy generation is that it is a renewable form of energy, while many other
sources are not.
5. Solar Thermal Energy does not require any fuel like most other sources of renewable
energy. This is a huge advantage over other fossil fuels whose costs are increasing at a
drastic rate every year.
6. Solar Thermal Energy can generate power 24 hours a day. This is made possible as
solar thermal power plants store the energy in the form of molten salts etc.
7. The availability of an inexpensive and efficient energy storage system may give power
towers a competitive advantage.

Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, M.A.C.E 12

CHAPTER 6

CONCLUSION

Solar power towers offer large-scale, distributed solutions to our nations energy needs,
particularly for peaking power. Like all solar technologies, they are fueled by sunshine
and do not release greenhouse gases. They are unique among solar electric technologies
in their ability to efficiently store solar energy and dispatch electricity to the grid when
needed, even at night or during cloudy weather. The solar power tower is an emerging
technology and economically erected for the production of electricity. Now a days
solar thermal technology had been successfully implemented for future perspectives
for overall development. In modeling and simulation of 1MW DAHAN, solar thermal
power plant model was developed and successfully applied to thermal power plant for
design and operation.

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REFERENCES

[1] Rebecca I. Dunn, Patrick J. Hearps, and Matthew N. Wright,”Molten-Salt Power

Towers: Newly Commercial Concentrating Solar Storage”,IEEE,Vol. 100, No. 2,
February 2012.

[2] D. Laing, C. Bahl, T. Bauer, D. Lehmann, and W. Steinmann, ”Thermal energy

storage for direct steam generation”, Solar Energy, vol. 85, no. 4, pp. 627633, Apr.
2011.

[3] S. Relloso and E. Delgado, ”Experience with molten salt thermal storage in a
commercial parabolic trough plant. Andasol-1 commissioning and operation”, in
Proc. 15th SolarPACES Conf., Berlin, Germany, 2009.

[4] S. Zunft, M. Hanel, M. Kruger, and V. DreiAigacker, ”High-temperature heat

storage for air-cooled solar central receiver plants: A design study”, in Proc. 15th
SolarPACES Conf., Berlin, Germany, 2009.

[5] D. Laing, W. Steinmann, R. Tamme, and C. Richter, ”Solid media thermal storage
for parabolic trough power plants”, Solar Energy, vol. 80, no. 10, pp. 12831289,
Oct. 2006.

[6] www.slideshare.net

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