The Magazine for Renewable energies

ISSN 1861-2741 74714

www.sunwindenergy.com

12.00 international issue

9/2011

EU PVSEC In touch with technology

PhoTovolTaIcS

BIoENErgy

WINd ENErgy

Solar ThErmal

Pellet World Map: where are the hot spots?

Manufacturers: pressure from two sides

absorber pipes: the right machinery

csp

small scale csp

Small solar thermal plants in focus

Increasing numbers of firms are demonstrating that small, off-grid concentrating solar power (CSP) plants have advantages over conventional photovoltaic systems and large solar thermal plants.
Demonstration power plant on the island of Hawaii. Located at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii, Holaniku at Keahole Point is the worlds first concentrating solar power project using micro-CSP technologies.
Photo: Sopogy

Already such plants are often less expensive than Diesel generators for offgrid applications and places with unstable grids.

Small size means easier to finance

Systems between 2 kW and 2 MW are also easier to realise than large solar thermal power plants be cause, the study points out, they present fewer plan ning and permitting hurdles, they are likely to be come cheaper as mass production increases, and have a broader range of potential applications. Elec tricity, heat and cooling can be produced where they are needed, which also makes the plants more eco nomical and easier to finance. More and more companies the world over are therefore working on this forwardlooking technology. Solarlite is one such company. Since 2005 Solarlite has been developing and manufacturing parabolic troughs from plastic. Our core competence is devel opment and construction of small and mediumsized solar thermal power plants with capacities of up to 50 MW, explains Catrin Gde of Solarlite. The power plants are suitable for energy production and grid coupling and can also cover the energy demand for highenergy industrial applications. The company got its start in 2005 with a project in Thailand. Solarlite was founded in 2007 and com missioned its first system in Germany the same year, a project which supplies heat for a fish farm. Solarlite concentrates in particular on the small to medium sized CSP market, systems with capacities of up to 40 MW. The company developed its SL 4600 and SL 4600+ collectors and its solar arrays for projects of this size. The technology also features a unique in novation. Unlike conventional parabolic collectors,

ower generation with photovoltaic systems is booming all over the world, and that trend has been going on for many years in some regions. Attractive conditions, high subsidies, and the prom ise of a good green image have created fertile ground for PV systems to sprout up everywhere like daisies. The potential uses of solar thermal are far more diverse, however. When combined with cogenera tion, applications range from industrial process heat production, to heat and cooling production for cli mate control, to power generation and seawater de salination. Increasingly advanced concepts are re ducing operating temperatures and pressures neces sary for such applications. Mature technologies are enabling the development of small, highperformance solar collectors. Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) systems can generate electricity at much lower temperatures and pressures than those typical of conventional power plants, temperatures starting at 100 C and pressures of much less than 20 bar. In 2009, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE studied the potential of small and mediumsized solar thermal power plants. It conclud ed that cogeneration plants with capacities ranging from 50 kW to 5 MW of electrical output were a very attractive option for regions with high insolation and that they offered economic benefits, especially when configured to supply heat, cooling, and power.

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which generate steam using a heat carrier medium, such as oil, Solarlites parabolic troughs produce steam directly. Gde says that this method is more ef fective and less expensive. The technology used in the Solarlite parabolic troughs is based on the con centrating solar collector concept. The steam flows to a heat exchanger where it can be used for a number of different purposes. In order to ensure a continuous energy supply, the parabolic troughs can be combined with biomass technologies or other steam generators. Our first commercial direct steam power plant is currently nearing completion in Thailand, and another three systems, each with a capacity of 9 MWel, are expect ed to come on line by 2013. Parallel to these projects we built a demonstration system a socalled tri generation power plant for generating power, cool ing, and hot water in the Thailand Solar Energy Park at Naresuan University in Phitsanulok, Thailand.

A candid look at the disadvantages

Solarlite is also conscious of the disadvantages of small solar thermal systems, however. Solar thermal power plants require a sizable investment. The plan ning process for such systems requires far more ef fort than planning a photovoltaic system. Investment levels and project completion times are also market hurdles for solar thermal. In addition, a plants loca tion has to meet special requirements; it has to have

direct sunlight and enough available land. Also, the market for solar thermal suppliers is limited to just a handful of providers. Long delivery times and poten tial bottlenecks always have to be taken into account and add to project planning time. Nevertheless, for sunny regions in North Africa, India, the US, and Asia, solar thermal is preferable to photovoltaics, explains Gde. Solar thermal has the advantage that as solar radiation increases, so does efficiency. With photovoltaics, efficiency tends to decline at high temperatures. In addition, the output of photovoltaic modules decreases over time and costs for maintenance and replacement in crease.

A tri-generation power plant for generating electricity, cooling, and hot water was installed in the Thailand Solar Energy Park of Naresuan University in Phitsanulok in Thailand. The goal of the project is to demonstrate a technology for distributed generation of electricity, heat, and cooling with solar energy and biomass.
Photo: Solarlite

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csp

small scale csp

Solarlite sees flexibility as its key advantage, be cause solar thermal power plants can be combined with all other types of fossil and renewable energy sources, and as a hybrid solution, can even be used to supply base load power. After all, the company says, solar thermal systems offer the potential to pro duce both electricity and process heat. In particular, the cogeneration option results in a very efficient use of solar irradiation. Solarlite already has experience building cogeneration and even trigeneration plants, and thats where we see our strength, says Gde. However, the company believes that more investment in research and development is needed to increase market acceptance of solar thermal worldwide. The overall investment costs for solar thermal systems could be reduced through innovations like storage technology and new production processes. To ac complish that, political support and a better legal framework is needed. tic, measuring 4 by 1 metres. It uses socalled Kyoto Mosaic mirror tiles to create multifunctional solar en ergy systems that allow the cogeneration of electric ity and heat. The Butterfly uses 20 times concentra tion, which requires only 5 % the area of solar cells to generate the same power output, the company found er says. The tracking system increases power output by 40 % over fixed mounted systems. The resulting heat can be used for a number of vital applications, such as desalination, water heating, food drying, and so on. The outputs are 800 W of electricity and hot water at temperatures up to 70 C. The system has storage to make 24 hour operation possible. Kyoto Energy is currently working on a new system. Small er unit sizes allow both small and large solar farm siz es, Bohmer says. Our system can start at about 25 kW and be extended up to multimegawatt capac ity. We have also chosen to work with air as a heat transfer medium with underground clay brick energy storage, and a smaller generator based on the Ericsson cycle. Our system is still in the development phase, but we expect to have pilot systems this year. Bohmer, too, sees cost as the key advantage of CSP in Africa. The main advantage is lower cost. We expect to get cost parity with coal, which is critical to a wholesale switchover to solar energy. Another ad vantage is the ability to work with standard factories and materials, so that we dont need to build new fac tories, even at the multigigawatt scale. Compared with big CSP, there is also the advantage of being able to do systems of any size, and even industrial roofmounted systems. Bohmer sees few disadvan tages of solar thermal systems. The main disadvan tage is the requirement for blue sky conditions. How ever, there are so many locations with good condi tions for CSP particularly in developing countries in Africa, India, South and Latin America so that does not really limit its usefulness.

Free of wear so far

Solarlite has a number of reference and demonstra tion systems in operation. The company has made improvements to their parabolic trough collectors based on the experience it has collected, particularly with regard to the size of the collectors. The materials and construction of the parabolic troughs has proven itself. The companys first commercial system from 2007 has shown itself to be maintenance friendly and operationally stable. The reflectors on the demon stration systems have also not shown any signs of wear, explains Gde. Looking toward Africa in the Kenyan city of Thi ka, for instance a very active company called Kyoto Energy stands out. Kyoto Energy specialises in the de velopment of small concentrating solar thermal pow er plants. We are developing a new CSP system with reduced costs and increased simplicity, Jon Bhmer, founder and CEO of Kyoto Energy, explains. We chose to work with injection moulded plastics and alumin ium rather than steel, glass, and concrete. We started development about five years ago and went through a number of different form factors until we ended up with our current design. This is how the company developed the Kyoto Butterfly, a CSP system made of aluminium and plas

The first parabolic trough plant in Asia based on the principle of direct steam generation is currently under construction in the province of Kanchanaburi, a sunny region in the centre of Thailand. The power plant was designed to have a nominal electrical capacity of 5 MW and a final extended capacity of 9 MW. Photo: Solarlite

Market leader from Hawaii

Moving to the US, the firm with the highest visibility is Sopogy. Sopogy claims to be the worlds leading developer of micro concentrating solar power (micro CSP) technologies in the 1 to 20 MW range. Smaller in size and operating at lower temperatures, the Sopogy design is CSP for the distribution grid or even the rooftop. Sopogys microCSP systems can gener ate 30 % more energy than fixedmounted photo voltaic panels, and unlike PV, microCSP collectors are easily recycled at the end of their life. CEO Darren T. Kimura established the company in 2006. Today, Sopogy has eighteen installations around the world, including systems in Hawaii, California, Florida, Texas, Mexico, and Abu Dhabi. MicroCSP systems heat a transfer fluid to 120 600 F (50 315 C). Lower temperatures mean that the components can be a little more offtheshelf and may reduce the need for expensive evacuated tubes and mirrors, says Tsurumi Hamasu of Sopogy. The hot fluid fuels organic Rankine engines, boilers, dry

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ers, absorption chillers, desalination units and other industrial machinery, replacing fossil fuels. Propri etary storage units for hot transfer fluid reduce pro duction volatility and extend productive hours. Our MicroCSP also has the benefit of a thermal storage option. The storage fluid is a foodgrade mineral oil stored in a container like a big thermos, Hamasu says. Additionally, the thermal inertia of the working fluid eliminates some of the intermittency faced by a photovoltaic panel installation. We are competing against PV and we are cheaper than most PV, states Hamasu. But the costs depend largely on local labour costs, since the system is built onsite. The projects can be installed for as little as US$ 3 per watt, but in general, the cost is US$ 5 per watt. In September 2009, Sopogys proprietary Micro CSP solar collectors were installed on the rooftop of the Gas Company Energy Resource Center in Downey, California, to provide solar thermally driven air condi tioning. The first rooftop integration project combin ing microCSP parabolic trough technology with an absorption chiller, the system produces 10 tons of cooling, or enough airconditioning to cool three aver agesized homes. Another MicroCSP cooling project is located in Hermosillo, Mexico: Sopogys MicroCSP technology will be used there to provide a renewable source of cooling for the new Hermosillo cement plant, which was inaugurated last March. The MicroC SP parabolic troughs of the first solar powered air conditioning system in Latin America have been as CEEA11 210x144mm Sun & Wind Ad.ai 8/11/11 10:55:21 AM sembled and mounted on the roof and ground in front

of the cement production facility. Their thermal capac ity is 291 MW. Last but not least, there is a MicroCSP power gen eration project at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii. Holaniku at Keahole Point is the worlds first concentrating solar power project using microCSP technologies. Holaniku also incorporates thermal en ergy storage, which solves the intermittency chal lenges typical of renewable energy technologies, such as wind and photovoltaics. The project, with a thermal capacity of 2 MW, was developed by Keahole Solar Power LLC. The vision behind Holaniku is not only to provide Hawaii with solargenerated energy, but also to help Hawaii achieve energy selfsufficiency and to create local technology jobs.
Oliver Klempert

In September 2009, Sopogys proprietary MicroCSP solar collectors were installed on the rooftop of the Gas Companys Energy Resource Center (ERC) in Downey, California, to provide solar thermally-driven air conditioning. Photo: Sopogy

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