Publications Details

Today's central receiver power plant

Alpert, D.J.

For 15 years, the United States Department of Energy has worked with industry, both utilities and manufacturers, to develop the technology of solar central receiver power plants. In this type of plant, sunlight is concentrated by a field of sun-tracking mirrors, called heliostats, onto a centrally located receiver. The solar energy is collected in the form of a heated fluid, which is used to generate steam to power a conventional turbine generator. For a number of reasons, molten nitrate salt is now the preferred heat transfer fluid. Commercial plants will be sized between 100 and 200 MW. The impetus for developing central receivers comes from their unique advantages: (1) They produce clean, reliable, low-cost electricity; (2) they have practical energy storage that provides a high degree of dispatchability (annually up to 60%) -- without fossil fuels; and, (3) they are environmentally benign. Development efforts around the world have brought the technology to the brink of commercialization: The technical feasibility has been proven, and cost, performance, and reliability can be confidently predicted. Plans are currently being developed for the final steps toward commercial central receiver power plants. 24 refs., 7 figs.