Solar Thermal Power –

Australia, India and the future Assoc. Professor Keith Lovegrove,

Solar Thermal Group Leader– Australian National University

(http://solar-thermal.anu.edu.au)

Head – Solar Thermal, IT Power

(www.itpau.com.au)

We are in the middle of

an Energy Revolution

Lifecycle of an energy technology

revolution

WindCSP

PV

New wave of

CSP since

2006

• Approx. 700MWe currently in operation (Sept 10) up from 354MWe

• Greenpeace / SolarPACES reports 22,318MW operating or construction

• IEA: Looking for 20GW/yr; CSP installation rate 80 x 250MWe/year, $15trillion dollars of R&D needed for new energy technology

354MWe

“SEGS” plants

going strong after

20 years

Steam turbines

are the

dominant power

house

Trough systems

• Least technical risk, used in most current construction

• All copies of the Californian SEGS plants

• Approx 6 companies offering large trough systems, all 5m

apertures.

• 2 (3) market providers of evacuated tube receivers, 2 (3) providers

of the glass facets

Pics from

Zarza, SolarPACE

S 09

• 50MWe system in Southern

Spain, commissioned in 2008

• Two tanks: Cold 292 ºC, Hot 386 ºC (Nitrate

molten salts 60% NaNO3 + 40% KNO3)

• Capacity 1010 MWh = 7.7 equivalent hours

Andasol 1; the benchmark for solar with storage

Tower systems

• Several serious players

building large scale

prototypes

• More innovation than

troughs

• Higher temperatures =

higher efficiency

• Receiver approaches:– Steam

– Molten salt

– Volumetric air

• Ausra; 5MWe system in California, Oct

2008

• Novatec Biosol (Transfield) and Solar

Power Group each have 1MWe

demonstrations in operation

Linear Fresnel

Infinia (USA) is a new player. 3kW “free piston

Stirling”

Stirling Energy Systems

(USA), have talked about big

projects. So far a 60dish

1.5MWe demo in Pheonix

Dish systems

ANU’s own

Generation II Big

Dish

• Project supported by Aus Federal

gov. (AusIndustry)

• Commercialisation by Wizard Power

• A large aperture, Altitude Azimuth

tracking dish

• Re-engineered for mass

production:

– Identical spherical mirror

panels

– Formed on an accurate jig

– Space-frame based on circular

pipe with simple welded joins

• Specifications:– Aperture 494m2 (489m2

active mirror)

– Focal length 13.4m

– Average diameter 25m

– Average rim angle 50.1o

– Mirror reflectivity 93.5%

– Number of mirrors 380

– Mirror size 1165mm x 1165mm

– Total mass of dish 19.1t

– Total mass of base and supports 7.3t

Whoops 2…..

(1600oC mp ceramic

blanket)

• Now testing monotube boiler steam receiver

• Initial results have receiver efficiency > 90%

• Operation to 500oC

Why Big

Dishes?

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

1 3 5 7 9

11

13

15

17

19

21

23

Dish Radius (m)

No

rma

lis

ed

co

st

/ u

nit

are

a Series3

Series6

Series9

Series12

Series1520%

30%

70%

Variation in R3

dependence

Trough Tower

System SEGs VI SolarTres Dish 10

Serg&Lund Serg&Lund ANU

Size 30MWe 13.6MWe 10MWe

Solar Field Optical Efficiency 0.533 0.56 0.85

Receiver thermal efficiency 0.729 0.783 0.9

Transient effects 0.92

Piping loss efficiency 0.961 0.995 0.961

Storage Efficiency 1 0.983 1

Turbine power cycle efficiency 0.35 0.405 0.35

Electric loss efficiency 0.827 0.864 0.86

Power plant availability 0.98 0.92 0.94

Annual Solar to Electric Eff 10.59% 13.81% 19.14%

• 1000+ suns = high temperatures =

solar driven chemical reactions

1st big Dish

demonstration system

supported by

Australian Government

“Advanced Energy

Storage Technology”

program – 4 dishes

with energy storage.

20

India and Australia compared

India Australia

Population 1100 million 20 million

Electricity Installed cap. 160GW 49GW

Land area 3.29 million sq km 7.7 million sq km

Primary energy 27,000 PJ/a 5,500 PJ/a

Net energy flow importer exporter

Policy drivers for Solar Solar mission: Solar Flagships:

1,000MWe by 2013 1,000MWe by 2015

20,000MWe by 2022 (20% renewable by

2020)

Australia’s Solar Flagships

program

• $1.5b for 1:2 funding of total capacity of 1GWe of systems

• Round 1 – 1x CST plus 1xPV for 400MWe

– 50+ stage 1 proposals received by 15 Feb 2010

• Solar Thermal Shortlist– ACCIONA 200MW using parabolic trough,

– Parsons Brinckerhoff 150MW parabolic trough (Siemens) Qld;

– Wind Prospect CWP linear fresnel (Ausra) Qld a 250MW power plant;

– Transfield to convert the Collinsville coal-fired station Qld into a 150MW linear fresnel

• Projects selected by first half 2011– Grid connection by end 2015

=1.3%

global

electricity

Future Prospects – lessons

from wind

23

IEA Roadmap CSP cost projections

What a learning curve really looks

like

Energy costs will decline as market

penetration increases from:

Serjent

and

Lundy

2003

Technical risk vs innovation

• Innovation is essential to cost reduction, balanced risk taking is needed.

• At present only trough technology is low risk for debt financiers

• Both JNSM and Solar Flagships have wisely adopted technology risk minimising requirements

• Both JNSM and Solar Flagships could still get it wrong…

• Technologies that are optimal for process

heat will not be optimal for power

generation

Avoid the lure of unlikely

promises

My new collector is half the price of

existing systems

My new low temperature heat

engine has really high efficiency

and low O&M costs

This wonderful new mirror

technology is cheap and will last

100 years

Biggest technical Risks for new

technologies

• Failure of mirrors

• Failure of receivers

• Failure of actuators

Technology risks for new players

adapting existing technology

• Quality control

• Maintaining optical accuracy

• Structural integrity

Future transport fuels could be the

most pressing global energy issue…

New fossil alternatives could triple

GHG footprint

Concentrated Solar + hydrocarbons for

Liquid Fuels

Coal or

biomass

Solar

Steam

Syngas

H2 + CO2

Gasification +

Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis

• A clean liquid fuel with 25 - 30% solar energy content for

– Petrol substitutes

– Fuel cells

– Combined cycle power generation

• Conversion of Thermal Coal exports could increase revenue by $50+billion / a

• Compatible with Carbon Capture and Storage

• Solar input vastly improves GHG impact

• Leads to solar processing of biomass or water splitting technologies

Algae biomass

or..

Solar Power station to

provide all of Australia’s

primary energy needs:Legend

greater than 24MJ/m2day

less than 24 but greater than 23mJ/m2day

less than 23 but greater than 22mJ/m2day

less than 22 but greater than 20mJ/m2day

less than 20 but greater than 18mJ/m2day

less than 18 but greater than 16mJ/m2day

less than 16MJ/m2day

138km x 138km,

20% coverage of

land with 20%

efficient collectors

Japan’s primary

energy with 338km

x 338km, 20%

coverage of land

with 20% efficient

collectors

Conclusions• Concentrating Solar Thermal is

versatile and dispatchable

• Concentrating Solar Thermal is taking

off around the world

• Need to maximise benefits while

starting with low technical risk

• Solar fuels for international trade has

huge potential

• ANU dish technology ready for

commercial demonstration