Concentrated Solar Power ...
It is one of the most promising technology in Solar Portfolio...
So let's start to learn what's a CSP is....... :)
Concentrated Solar Power
Concentrated solar power (CSP) systems, are systems that use mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight, or solar thermal energy, onto a small area. Electrical power is produced when the concentrated light is converted to heat which drives a heat engine (usually a steam turbine) connected to an electrical power generator.
There are different Types:
Solar Power Tower
The technology utilizes many large, sun-tracking
mirrors (heliostats) to focus sunlight on a receiver at the top of a
tower. A heat transfer fluid heated in the receiver is used to generate
steam, which, in turn, is used in a conventional turbine-generator to
produce electricity.
Parablic Dish Systems
A dish Stirling or dish engine system consists of a stand-alone parabolic reflector
that concentrates light onto a receiver positioned at the reflector's
focal point. The reflector tracks the Sun along two axes. The working
fluid in the receiver is heated to 250–700 °C (523–973 K (482–1292 °F))
and then used by a Stirling engine to generate power.
Parablic Trough Systems
The sun's energy is concentrated by parabolically curved, trough-shaped reflectors onto a receiver pipe running along the inside of the curved surface. This energy heats oil flowing through the pipe, and the heat energy is then used to generate electricity in a conventional steam generator.
Fresnel reflectors
Fresnel reflectors are made of many thin, flat mirror strips to concentrate sunlight onto tubes through which working fluid is pumped. Flat mirrors allow more reflective surface in the same amount of space as a parabolic reflector, thus capturing more of the available sunlight, and they are much cheaper than parabolic reflectors. Fresnel reflectors can be used in various size CSPs
