Advances in solartower technology

摘要

This article begins with a short introduction and continues with a presentation ofsolar tower power plants around the world. The focus is set on the developmentsof the last five years and in the near future of the most important components ofa central receiver system (CRS). For each of the components, a description of eachtechnology, its applicability, and the advantages and disadvantages is presented.The chapter also includes a state of the art review for almost each system andpoints out the Research and Development (RD) needs. A further issue is thechoice of the heat-transfer fluid (HTF) as well as the improvement of new solartower power plant cycle systems. The paper introduces recent RD activities,with the majority occurring in Europe and the United States, as has been presentedin international journals and conferences by scientific personnel. It alsoreflects opinions of experts who specialized in the planning and erection of solarpower plants and carrying out CRS research projects. The future effort of RD inthese fields should improve efficiencies, increase durability and reliability, andreduce investment and Operation Maintenance (OM) costs. Nowadays, andin this decade, the most advances in CRS occur in the United States, in Europe,and in China. Furthermore, a great interest, especially for add-ons to existingresearch platforms as well as the construction of new ones, can be observed forthe last years for countries in the Middle East North Africa region, such asMorocco as well as India, Australia, and South Africa.