Large CSP Plant Opens in Abu Dhabi
Here’s a short video that presents a shiny new CSP (concentrated solar power, aka solar thermal) plant in Abu Dhabi.
This 100 MW installation cost $600 million, not exactly cheap. But CSP is a relatively new concept that hasn’t had the time to undergo the cost-reduction that comes from decades of R&D in the more mature technologies like solar PV and wind.
So what is remarkable about this? Well, it uses air-cooling vs. water, which, considering that this plant (as well as most future CSP plants) is in the desert, this breakthrough is of incredible importance.
The other thing, of course, is that the UAE has oil coming out its ears. So why clean energy? If you believe them, and I don’t see any reason not to, it’s about climate change; they perceive a responsibility to lead the world away from fossil fuels and into renewables.
Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned here for the U.S.
It’s fine that it uses air cooling rather than water cooling, but it must be recognized that, especially in hot weather, that will reduce its efficiency and power output.
Thermodynamic efficiency is increased when the difference in temperature between the high side and the low side is increased. By reducing the temperature of the low side, efficiency is increased and the investment required for a given amount of power is decreased. But in a desert, there is little choice but to use air cooling.
Yes, however, one of the things I noticed when I spent a year in that part of the world was that shade and wind do a remarkable job of cooling things down. You could put a semicircle shaped piece of reflective aluminum over the pipe with a small air gap so that it created a low pressure area around the pipe. This would add to the cooling effect quite a bit.
What I thought was most interesting was that this is a solar-gas hybrid plant. The solar is used for preheat, but natural gas is used to increase the operating temperature.
one advantage of this is that higher operating temperatures mean that there is less of an efficiency penalty from air cooling.
Good point. Thanks.