Publications

The use of renewable energy technologies is typically thought of as an integral part of creating and sustaining an environment that maximizes the overall quality of life of the Earth`s present inhabitants and does not leave an undue burden on future generations. Sandia National Laboratories has been a leader in developing and deploying many of these technologies over the last two decades. A common but special aspect of all of these activities is that they are all conducted in cooperation with various types of partners. Some of these partners have an interest in seeing these systems grow in the marketplace, while others are primarily concerned with economic benefits that can come from immediate use of these renewable energy systems. This paper describes solar thermal and photovoltaic technology activities at Sandia that are intended to accelerate the commercialization of these solar systems.

The use of renewable energy technologies is typically thought of as an integral part of creating and sustaining an environment that maximizes the overall quality of life of the Earths present inhabitants and does not leave an undue burden on future generations. Sandia National Laboratories has been a leader in developing many of these technologies over the last two decades. This paper describes innovative solar, wind and geothermal energy systems and components that Sandia is helping to bring to the marketplace. A common but special aspect of all of these activities is that they are conducted in partnership with non-federal government entities. A number of these partners are from New Mexico.

Fifteen years of solar thermal technology development have produced a considerable amount of knowledge relating to the production of electricity from central receiver power plants. This body of knowledge is under examination by researchers from the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany for the purpose of defining the next generation central receiver electricity producers. This second generation power plant is expected to represent a significant step towards commercialization of these systems. During the course of the study, specific activities needed to realize this next-step technology are being defined. The study is an international team effort. Under the International Energy Agency Small Solar Power Systems project, researchers from DLR, Interatom, Sandia National Laboratories, and Bechtel have designed a study in which technologies relating to existing systems are quantified, logical next-step systems are characterized, and future potential advances are identified. The receiver concepts under investigation are: salt-in- tube, volumetric, and direct absorption. Two plant performance levels are examined, 30 and 100 MW{sub e}. Each concept is applied with common capacity factors, solar multiples, and types and sizes of heliostats at each performance level. Availability and uncertainty analyses are also performed. Annual energy production figures are calculated using the SOLERGY computer code. Capital and Operation and Maintenance cost methodologies are mutually agreed upon in order that levelized energy cost calculations will be consistent for each power plant. During the course of this effort, further potential advances in central receiver technology have continued to become apparent. These possible areas for improvement will be described. An additional comparison is being made between central receivers and trough-based systems. 8 refs., 2 figs.

This document contains a report of the work performed in the Solar Industrial Process Heat Project during the period FY 1984 to FY 1986. The work involved seventeen experiments funded by the Department of Energy. The report contains a description of each of the active experiments and a discussion of their system performance, operation, and maintenance experience during the last three years of the project. Emphasis is placed on energy production and on economic considerations. It also contains a brief statement of the status of the solar equipment for systems no longer in operation. The project was sponsored by the Systems Test and Evaluation Branch of the Division of Solar Thermal Technology, Department of Energy. 24 refs., 35 figs., 24 tabs.