Sun Engine

Concentrated Solar Power.  PS10 Solar Power Plant.



Solar Power Tower.

Ivanpah Solar Power Facility :  Wikipedia.
The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, is a solar thermal power project currently under
construction in the California Mojave Desert, 40 miles (60 km) southwest of Las Vegas, with a planned capacity of 392  megawatts (MW). It will deploy 347,000 heliostat mirrors focusing solar energy on boilers located on centralized solar power towers.

Parabolic Mirrors







Acciona Power Inc.

Megastructures. Man Made Sun.



Nevada Solar One

Parabolic Trough.

Solar Receiver Tubes. Solar Thermal Collector.    
At the " Focal Point "  of the " Parabolic Trough " is the " Solar Receiver Tubes ".

The hot tunes filled with the synthetic oil that gathered heat up to nearly 400 degrees Celsius.

The hot tubes pass through the heat exchanger where the water will turn into the steam.

The steam drives the turbine to produce the electricity.















Building the solar panel and assembly it on the truss may be easy, but build the number like this
is the daunting task.



Power Tower.
Using the individual mirrors to reflect the sun ray on the single receiver on the top of the tall tower.



The tube on the receiver top of the tower  absorbs the concentrated solar ray





But achieve the efficiency, the mirrors or " Heliostats "  have to operate separately on two axles. The technology wasn't simply material enough.











Normal glass has green tint caused by mineral like iron.

White glass is pure.

In the solar energy thin and clear are what is all about.





Because the sun ray reflected the mirror, it first passes through the clear glass and hit the reflected surface and then passed through again on the way to the receiver.

So if the glass is thick and unclear, energy would be lost and create less electricity.









Silver





Polish







Receiver Tube







Like the mirror, the ingredient is the unusual pure sand.

The work melted the sand into malleable liquid.

They shape them into the tubes, cool them, and cut them into the section.









**  In side the top secret assembly area, engineers marry the glass tube with endless tubes
     coating with the special paint. The paint can absorb 95% of solar energy reflected from
     the mirrors.



The machine pumps the air out of the tube creating the vacuum.



In Nevada, the worker welded the tubes together.





Heat Transfer. Technological Wonder.





The concentrated solar ray from the mirrors passes through  the receiver anti-reflected coating and then through the inner vacuum with little lost energy. They heat the steel tubes of the center, heating the liquid within. But the surrounding vacuum acts as the insulator preventing the heat from escaping.

The generator appears to the power plant.



Linear Fresnel Reflector.



The receiver tube filled with the water rather than the synthetic oil.

Molten Salt.

Molten salt could be the " Thermal Energy Storage "  in the future.

[Highlights]
Concentrated Solar Power
Parabolic Trough
Solar Thermal Collector
Molten Salt

[Questions]