*CSP Technologies

* Solar Dish /Sterling engine system

* Parabolic Trough
* Solar concentrating receiver
 *Stirling engine
* The spark-ignition and Diesel-cycle reciprocating engines just
described are examples of internal combustion engines. That is,
combustion takes place inside the engine itself.
* An alternative approach is external combustion, in which energy
is supplied to the working fluid from a source outside of the
engine.
Stirling-cycle engines were patented in 1816 by a minister in the
Church of Scotland, Robert Stirling.
Sterling engine consists of the following components:
* 1) Heat Source.
* 2) Regenerator.
* 3) Cooler.
* 4) Heat Sink
* 5) Displacer.
* 6) Hot side heat exchanger.
Heat source:
*The heat source may be combustion of a fuel and, geothermal
energy, solar energy or any other source. Since in sterling engine,
external combustion takes place so the products do not mix
with the working fluid and hence they don’t come into contact
with the internal moving parts of the engine.
*A Sterling engine can run on many fluids that can damage the
working of internal combustion engine.
Regenerator:
*In a Sterling engine, the regenerator part is an internal heat
exchanger and temporary heat storage placed between the hot and
cold spaces such that the working fluid passes through it first in one
direction then in the other direction.
* Its function is to retain within the
system that heat which would
otherwise be passed to the environment at temperatures
intermediate to the maximum and minimum cycle temperatures,
thus enabling the thermal efficiency of the cycle to approach the
limiting Carnot efficiency defined by those maxima and minima
Cooler / cold side heat exchanger:
* In small, low power engines this may simply consist of the walls of
the cold space(s), but where larger powers are required a cooler
using a liquid like water is needed in order to transfer sufficient
heat.
Heat sink:-
* The heat sink is typically the environment at ambient temperature.
In the case of medium to high power engines, a radiator is
required to transfer the heat from the engine to the ambient air.
* Marine engines can use the ambient water. In the case of combined
heat and power systems, the engine's cooling water is used directly
or indirectly for heating purposes.
* Alternatively, heat may be supplied at ambient temperature and
the heat sink maintained at a lower temperature by such means as
cryogenic fluid (Liquid nitrogen) or iced water
Displacer:-
* The displacer is a special-purpose piston, used in Beta and Gamma
type Sterling engines, to move the working gas back and forth
between the hot and cold heat exchangers. Depending on the type of
engine design, the displacer may or may not be sealed to the cylinder,
i.e. it is a loose fit within the cylinder and allows the working gas to
pass around it as it moves to occupy the part of the cylinder beyond.
Hot side heat exchanger:
* In small, low power engines this may simply consist of the walls of the
hot space(s) but where larger powers are required a greater surface
area is needed in order to transfer sufficientheat. Typical
implementations are internal and external fins or multiple small bore
tubes.
* Designing Sterling engine heat exchangers is a balance between high
heat transfer with low viscous pumping losses and low dead space
(unswept internal volume). With engines operating at high
powers and pressures, the heat exchangers on the hot side must
be made of alloys retaining considerable strength at temperature
that also will not corrode or creep.
* Stirling engines in sizes ranging from less than 1 kW up to about 25
kW are beginning to be made commercially available. While their
efficiency is still relatively low, typically less than 30%, rapid
progress is being made toward boosting that into the range in which
they would be competitive with internal-combustion engines.

* Since fuel is burned slowly and constantly, with no explosions, these

engines are inherently quiet, which could make them especially
attractive for automobiles, boats, recreational vehicles, and even small
aircraft. In fact, that quietness has been used to advantage in Stirling
engine propulsion systems for submarines.
 *Comparison
Efficiency:
All three of these technologies incorporate heat engines, which means the
higher the temperature of the heat source, the greater the potential efficiency.
The key to high temperatures is the intensity of solar radiation focused onto
the receiver, which is usually expressed in dimensionless “suns” of
concentration where the reference point of 1 sun means no concentration.
* Dish Stirling systems achieve concentration ratios of about 3000 suns,
power towers about 1000 suns, and parabolic trough systems about 100
suns.
* Not surprisingly, the corresponding efficiencies of these technologies
follow the same ranking,with dish Stirling the highest and parabolic trough
the lowest.
* Annual efficincies :Dish Stirling 21%, power towers 16%, and parabolic
troughs 14%.
* In terms of land area required, however, power towers suffer because of
the empty space between tower and mirrors, so the rankings shift some.
Dish Stirling requires about 4 acres per MW, parabolic troughs about 5
acres/MW, and power towers about 8 acres/MW.
* All three of these CSP technologies can be hybridized using fossil fuel
auxiliary heat sources, so they are the somewhat the same in that regard.
Another way to achieve reliability, however, is with thermal storage; in
that regard, parabolic troughs and power towers havean advantage over
dish Stirling engines.
* When thermal storage is the backup rather than fuel combustion, systems
are easier to permit since they can be 100% solar.
* Dish Stirling engines, which need no cooling water have the advantage
over current designs for troughs and towers. They also make very little
noise and have a relatively low profile so they may be easier to site close
to residential loads.
* Dish Stirling systems appear to be appropriately sized at about 25
kW each, but economies of scale play a bigger role for troughs
and towers and they may be most economical in unit sizes of
about 100 MW.
* It seems likely to be easier to find investors willing to help
develop $100,000 dish systems, working out the bugs and
improving the technology as they go along, than to assemble the
hundreds of millions of dollars needed for a single trough or
tower system.
Wind turbines, with their explosive growth, have certainly
benefited from the fact that they too are small in scale.