Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology: Dynamical Behavior of CSP Plants

Abstract

Subject Solar thermal power plants are utility scale power production systems that work with an intermediate thermal cycle and a conventional steam turbine cycle. Whereas other entries in this book give insights into the different CSP technologies this entry focuses on the dynamic behavior of concentrating solar power plants. The solar irradiation is a volatile source of energy that imposes variations in available energy on different time scales. The most prominent one is the daily profile of available irradiance with its peak usually in the middle of the day. The ideal daily irradiation profile is superposed by varying extinction effects in atmosphere and by short-term fluctuations induced by clouds passing over the plant. Apart from the daily profile, the available solar energy shows a typical seasonal profile with higher monthly sum in summer and lower values in winter. It is mainly those changes in solar irradiation that cause the technical system to be in a dynamic mode of operation nearly all the time. The analysis of dynamic behavior and design of appropriate control concepts has evolved into an important discipline in solar engineering. The entry provides the reader with an overview on the relevant dynamic effects and introduces today’s state of the art. At the end of the entry an outlook on future approaches in the field of dynamic behavior will be given.