18.05.12

ABB has launched a new concept for turnkey concentrating solar power plants (CSP) based on a low-cost, highly efficient and highly scalable technology that uses considerably less material, land and water than any other CSP technology.

Concentrated solar systems reflect sunlight, usually with mirrors, to heat liquids and produce steam to generate electricity.

The ABB-Novatec Solar concept can be used to generate energy in a wide range of applications including stand alone or hybrid power plants, as fuel savers in existing power plants, in desalination and district cooling plants, and in industrial processes that require steam.

This is achieved through an innovative solar boiler design for direct steam generation based on linear Fresnel collector technology. Instead of the curved mirrors of a parabolic trough, the collectors use flat glass mirrors to reflect solar energy onto a receiver in which water is vaporised directly to produce superheated steam at temperatures of up to 500 degrees Celsius and a pressure of 100 bars.

Source: FEN