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Solar thermal aided power generation

journal contribution
posted on 2010-09-01, 00:00 authored by Eric Hu, Y Yang, A Nishimura, Ferdi Yilmaz, Abbas KouzaniAbbas Kouzani
Fossil fuel based power generation is and will still be the back bone of our world economy, albeit such form of power generation significantly contributes to global CO2 emissions. Solar energy is a clean, environmental friendly energy source for power generation, however solar photovoltaic electricity generation is not practical for large commercial scales due to its cost and high-tech nature. Solar thermal is another way to use solar energy to generate power. Many attempts to establish solar (solo) thermal power stations have been practiced all over the world. Although there are some advantages in solo solar thermal power systems, the efficiencies and costs of these systems are not so attractive. Alternately by modifying, if possible, the existing coal-fired power stations to generate green sustainable power, a much more efficient means of power generation can be reached. This paper presents the concept of solar aided power generation in conventional coal-fired power stations, i.e., integrating solar (thermal) energy into conventional fossil fuelled power generation cycles (termed as solar aided thermal power). The solar aided power generation (SAPG) concept has technically been derived to use the strong points of the two technologies (traditional regenerative Rankine cycle with relatively higher efficiency and solar heating at relatively low temperature range). The SAPG does not only contribute to increase the efficiencies of the conventional power station and reduce its emission of the greenhouse gases, but also provides a better way to use solar heat to generate the power. This paper presents the advantages of the SAPG at conceptual level.

History

Journal

Applied energy

Volume

87

Issue

9

Pagination

2881 - 2885

Publisher

Elsevier

Location

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

ISSN

0306-2619

eISSN

1872-9118

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2009, Elsevier