How does solar thermal energy work?

Such panels harness the heat from the Sun’s rays to heat the fluid, which can provide warmth to the space directly or drive turbines to generate power.

How do solar thermal power plants work?

These plants use mirrors to focus the Sun’s rays onto a receiver, heating a fluid to produce steam that will drive a turbine connected to a generator, converting thermal energy into electricity.

How can I use solar thermal energy storage?

Just like any electricity storage, such power repositories use chemical reactions to store the potential energy in materials like molten salts or phase-change substances. Later, the system used these liquids as part of the industrial process of generating electricity.

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The Future of Clean Energy: Thermal Solar Power Plant Explained

2 weeks ago

Solar thermal energy is changing the renewable energy landscape, making it even more profitable for large-scale applications. As of the end of 2024, global renewable power capacity reached 4,448 GW, with solar accounting for 1,865 GW. In the United States alone, solar represented over 60% of all new power installations.

CSP electricity costs have fallen by over 50% in the last ten years, thanks to better thermal energy storage. With this new technology, businesses can benefit from solar power 24/7.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy

Gradually, solar thermal energy became as common as photovoltaic solar farms. In this article, we examine key distinctions between a thermal solar power plant and photovoltaic farms, discover key types of thermal solar, and how they benefit businesses and residential users.

What Is a Solar Thermal Plant?

Typically, a solar thermal plant is a large-scale system that uses the Sun’s rays to generate heat. Later, you can use it to maintain a stable temperature of workspaces or generate electricity. Today, solar thermal energy systems fall into two large categories:

Solar Water Heating (SWH): It’s like the Sun heats water, but faster. The collectors soak up sunlight, warming up the fluids inside them naturally. This fluid heats water or flows throughout the system.
Concentrated Solar Power (CSP): These systems use lenses to focus rays onto a small receiver. This concentrated energy helps the CSP to generate steam. It drives turbines, producing electricity. Concentrating solar power systems are typically primarily used for large-scale energy production.

A solar thermal power plant is a renewable, eco-friendly way to harness solar energy and can be used in both residential and commercial applications.

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What Is Solar Thermal Energy Used For?

As we said, solar thermal systems are used for various applications. While you can use photovoltaic (PV) systems only for power generation, solar thermal stations have diverse use cases:

Water and space heating: They can heat water for residential, commercial, and industrial use. Later, that water can flow through heating systems.
Electricity Generation (Concentrated Solar Power, CSP): A solar power plant that uses mirrors to focus sunlight onto a receiver, producing steam that drives turbines to produce electricity.
Cooling (Solar Absorption Cooling): A solar power plant can also power absorption chillers to cool down refrigerated rooms.
Swimming pool heating: Solar collectors heat pool water, extending the swimming season without additional energy costs.

Multiple businesses are interested in using solar thermal power due to its renewable nature and lower energy costs.

Key Distinctions Between Thermal Solar Power Plants and Photovoltaic Farms

Although both technologies can generate large-scale electricity, they work on different principles.

Thermal solar power plants use lenses to concentrate sunlight and heat a fluid. Later, the system uses this fluid to produce steam that drives turbines connected to power generators. If you use liquids that can hold this warmth for a long time, you can generate electricity even after sunset.

Meanwhile, photovoltaic (PV) farms use semiconductor materials to convert sunlight into power via the photovoltaic effect. They can’t store electricity in any way. So, businesses need to connect those farms to the grid or use large batteries to store the DC electricity in chemical form.

How Does Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Work?

Concentrated solar power stations are the most commonly used solar thermal stations, as they can generate eco-friendly electricity on a large scale. Later, businesses can use this electricity for any purpose or sell it to the grid.

Source: MDPI

In one of our articles, we talked about concentrated solar power stations and how they use lenses to focus sunlight onto a receiver. The concentrated energy heats a fluid inside or near the receiver to generate steam. Now, you can use steam power to launch a generator. Here is a detailed explanation of how a concentrated solar power plant works:

Large mirrors (heliostats) or lenses (solar concentrators) track the Sun and concentrate its rays onto a receiver.
The receiver absorbs and transfers the concentrated solar energy to a heat-transfer fluid.
The high-temperature fluid produces steam by heating water in a heat exchanger.
The water steam drives a turbine, which spins a generator to produce electricity.
This steam is cooled back and reused in the system.

This process allows concentrated solar power plants to generate electricity even after sunset. CSP technology is especially effective in regions with high direct sunlight, such as deserts or fields, where vast open spaces can accommodate a huge amount of mirrors without blinding citizens.

Types of Plants & Stations Concentrating Solar Power

As of today, there are four popular ways to harness concentrated sunlight. Let’s examine all of them below to find which of them suits you most.

Type	Depiction	Benefits	Drawbacks
Parabolic Trough	This solar power plant uses curved mirrors to focus sunlight onto a tube filled with heat-transfer fluid	Proven technology with efficient heat collection	Requires a large land area.
Power Tower (Central Receiver System)	A field of mirrors focuses sunlight onto a receiver atop a central tower	High efficiency and suitable for large-scale electricity generation	They are expensive to build and maintain
Linear Fresnel Reflector	Here, flat and long mirrors focus sunlight onto a fixed receiver tube above them	Simple design, hassle-free upkeep	Lower efficiency due to less accurate focus
Dish Stirling System	A parabolic dish gathers sunlight, directing it to a Stirling engine that transforms the heat into power.	It is highly efficient, modular, scalable, and works well in remote areas.	Expensive, limited, large-scale applications require frequent maintenance.

Unlock New Opportunities with Thermal Solar Power Plants

Solar thermal is becoming a part of the global renewable energy landscape, offering society myriad ways to use the power of the Sun. Despite challenges such as high setup costs and the need for substantial land areas, the long-term benefits of large-scale solar plants position thermal solar energy as a great alternative to traditional heating and electricity generation systems.

They reduce carbon emissions, produce renewable electricity even during the twilight, and enhance the energy independence of remote areas.

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