Solar heat for commercial and industrial applications

Another application is solar process heat. This is the use of solar heat as process heat in commercial and industrial companies. This application is still rare, but it has a high potential, as the demand for process heat in manufacturing industry is not insignificant. Only locations with favourable irradiation conditions and sufficient area for the collectors are suitable for the use of solar process heat. If solar irradiation is too low, energy must be provided by additional conventional systems.

A special application of solar thermal energy is solar thermal power plants. Here, high temperature heat is used to generate electrical energy. This distinguishes the power plants from other solar thermal plants that are used to provide thermal energy.

In solar thermal power plants, direct solar radiation is strongly concentrated with mirror systems and reflected on absorbers. The heat generated is used, for example, to generate steam for steam power plants.

A high level of direct solar radiation is necessary to make solar thermal power plants economically viable.

Depending on the type of mirror system used, the following types of power plants can be distinguished: Parabolic trough, tower, Fresnel and paraboloid (= Dish-Stirling) power plants

Further information is available at http://www.solarpaces.org.

Look on YouTube! Australia’s Energy Security – Concentrated Solar Thermal Powerplus Molten Salt Storage (CSP+) Length: 4:34 min.