PS10 solar power plant
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The solar thermal power plant PS10 (Spanish Planta Solar 10 ) is Europe's first commercial solar tower power plant. It is in the plane of Sanlúcar la Mayor near Seville in Andalusia. The plant started in March 2007 after four years of construction period. It has a maximum power of 11 MW and consists of 624 trackable mirrors, called heliostats.
Background
The European Commission promotes research in different areas. Is devoted to a project funded branch of CSP technology (Concentrated Solar Power) to the renewable energy sector. As part of the Fifth Framework Programme three projects were funded, which will serve the testing of solar power plants in the megawatt range. One of the projects selected was the PS10, which was funded with five million euros. The construction costs amounted to 35 million euros, of which there were five million euro funding from the European Commission and the Andalusian Regional Government contributed 1.2 million euros.
Project partner and operator
Planning and construction of solar thermal power plant were carried out by a consortium led by Solúcar Energía SA, a subsidiary of Abengoa SA. Next was the consortium of Ciemat, DLR, Fichtner and Inabensa. PS10 is operated by Abengoa.
Location
Since Andalusia has the highest solar radiation in Europe, this location is particularly suitable for solar power plants. The PS10 is part of the planned Plataforma Solar de Sanlúcar la Mayor ( PSSM ), a project, a total of 300 MW to build in the same area solar power plants of different design performance.
Technology
The PS10 is designed as a solar tower power plant. 624 mounted on the heliostat mirrors reflect the sunlight and focus it on a common absorber ( receiver) that is mounted on a 115 m high tower. With where concentrated heat steam is generated for driving on turbines generators for generating electrical energy.
Mirror
Each of the 624 levels has an area of 120 square meters and consists of 28 individual elements. The surface is made of galvanized steel. At wind speeds above 36 km / h, the mirrors are aligned horizontally to provide less exposure to the wind and thus prevent damage. The position of the sun is calculated centrally and the mirror tracked by a local controller in two axes of the sun. The mirror box and the arrangement of the individual mirrors to each other was computerized optimized to minimize shadowing effects and the loss by the Cosinuseffekt (reduction of the projected area when tilted ) ( 4.5 or 19% loss p. A.).
Absorber
The absorber is mounted on a 115 m high tower. It consists of four 5.40 m wide and 12 m high individual elements which are mounted semi-circular. By this arrangement, the heat loss is reduced by convection and heat radiation, so that the absorber has an efficiency of 92%. The projected area is 121 m². At design conditions as 55 MWth in the form of 100,000 kg / h of saturated steam at 257 ° C and 40 bar are produced.
Turbine, generator, and condenser
The turbine is of the 250 ° C hot steam at 40 bar pressure driven. The electrical power of the connected generator is 11 MW. The expanded steam from the turbine is then condensed bar at 0.06 in a water- cooled condenser. A multi-step process that utilizes the residual heat of the steam from the turbine, the water is then heated before it is fed back to the absorber.
Energy Storage
In order to short-term fluctuations in irradiation, to be able, for example, by transient cloud cover, compensate, established a system for energy storage. At full power, the absorber parts of the steam may be diverted and stored in four tanks. These have a thermal capacity of 20 MWh and allow the operation of the turbines for 50 min at half power.
Expansion plans
PS10 is part of the Plataforma Solar de Sanlúcar la Mayor ( PSSM ). Total 's operations in this area solar power plants are a total electrical output of 300 MW. In the immediate vicinity of the works according to the same principle, solar thermal power plant PS20 already built with 20 MW. Another five thermal power plants of 50 MW capacity and photovoltaic plants with 2 MW are planned.