Gregory J. Kolb

Final Test and Evaluation Results from the Solar Two Project

Solar Two was a collaborative, cost-shared project between 11 U. S. industry and utility partners and the U. S. Department of Energy to validate molten-salt power tower technology. The Solar Two plant, located east of Barstow, CA, comprised 1926 heliostats, a receiver, a thermal storage system, a steam generation system, and steam-turbine power block. Molten nitrate salt was used as the heat transfer fluid and storage media. The steam generator powered a 10-MWe (megawatt electric), conventional Rankine cycle turbine. Solar Two operated from June 1996 to April 1999. The major objective of the test and evaluation phase of the project was to validate the technical characteristics of a molten salt power tower. This report describes the significant results from the test and evaluation activities, the operating experience of each major system, and overall plant performance. Tests were conducted to measure the power output (MW) of the each major system, the efficiencies of the heliostat, receiver, thermal storage, and electric power generation systems and the daily energy collected, daily thermal-to-electric conversion, and daily parasitic energy consumption. Also included are detailed test and evaluation reports.

Heliostat Cost Reduction Study

Power towers are capable of producing solar-generated electricity and hydrogen on a large scale. Heliostats are the most important cost element of a solar power tower plant. Since they constitute {approx} 50% of the capital cost of the plant it is important to reduce heliostat cost as much as possible to improve the economic performance of power towers. In this study we evaluate current heliostat technology and estimate a price of

Economic evaluation of solar-only and hybrid power towers using molten-salt technology

126/m{sup 2} given year-2006 materials and labor costs for a deployment of {approx}600 MW of power towers per year. This 2006 price yields electricity at

An evaluation of possible next-generation high temperature molten-salt power towers.

0.067/kWh and hydrogen at

An Evaluation of Molten-Salt Power Towers Including Results of the Solar Two Project

3.20/kg. We propose research and development that should ultimately lead to a price as low as

Screening Analysis of Solar Thermochemical Hydrogen Concepts

90/m{sup 2}, which equates to