Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Receives $10.2M Contract for Concentrated Solar Power Tower with Thermal Storage Technology
04 June 2010
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne received an award of up to $10.2 million from the Department of Energy to design and develop technologies aimed at significantly lowering electricity costs using a Concentrated Solar Power Tower with Thermal Storage (CSP Power Tower). Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is a United Technologies Corp. company.
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne has developed designs for CSP Power Tower technology that use thousands of articulating mirrors, or heliostats, to track the sun and reflect solar energy onto a receiver mounted atop a 600-foot-tall tower. Liquefied molten salt is circulated into the receiver, where it is heated to about 1,000 °F (about 538 °C), then stored in a large insulated tank.
The energy from this stored molten salt is available on-demand to drive a steam turbine to create electricity. Because hot molten salt can be stored for days with little heat-loss, it can be used at night or on cloudy days to generate electricity. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne has provided the worldwide exclusive license to SolarReserve, a solar power project company, for the molten salt power tower and heliostat technologies.
As part of the DOE contract to lower costs and increase CSP Power Tower capacity, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne will use its engineering expertise to optimize system performance and efficiency; use advanced manufacturing techniques that better absorb energy into the receiver; develop a higher-performance, lower-cost second-generation heliostat system; and incorporate a new thermal storage system.
Cogeneration can save CO2 and money better and faster than any kind of solar or wind energy. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 04 June 2010 at 04:12 AM
NG fueled Cogen is a great intermediate step and for that, I endorse it heartily. Ultimately cogen systems will need to be replaced with renewable powered equivalents. Distributed power gen at the residential or neighborhood level is more appealing than continued sole reliance on utility-scale power systems - for many reasons. At the end of the day, we will have a healthy mix of both.
I like this CSP approach with heat storage that extends generation availability. I've been thinking of a similar, neighborhood-scale approach that uses the Infinia Stirling power generator, stores heat in an insulated underground tank, and provides both electricity and heat to a development. Cooling can be provided by heat pumps.
Posted by: Sanity Chk | 04 June 2010 at 08:08 AM
HG: More than one technology can be used concurrently to produce cleaner energy. Solar and Wind energies should and will be part of future energy mix.
Posted by: HarveyD | 05 June 2010 at 08:35 AM