270 results about "Solar power plant" patented technology

A suntracking system for a central receiver solar power plant includes a heliostat field for reflecting sunlight to a receiver, cameras directed toward at least a subset of the heliostats, and a controller. The cameras are configured to produce images of sunlight reflected from multiple heliostats. The heliostats include a mirrored surface having a settable orientation and have a geometry modeled by a set of parameters. A method of estimating heliostat parameters for open-loop suntracking includes acquiring pointing samples by setting the direction of reflection of the heliostats and detecting concurrent sunlight reflections into the cameras. The method uses the acquired pointing samples and surveyed locations of the cameras to estimate the heliostat parameters. The method accurately maintains the sun's reflection directed toward the receiver open-loop utilizing the estimated tracking parameters.

A solar power plant having a plurality of receiver panels mounted in a circular fashion about a solar receiver. Each receiver panel includes a plurality of tubes that terminate at each end at a header. To eliminate the presence of gaps between the tubes of adjacent receiver panels the headers are staggered or beveled. In the staggered configuration the headers of adjacent receiver panels are located in different elevations so that the headers of adjacent receiver panels may overlap each other, thus allowing the headers and tubes of adjacent receiver panels to be positioned closer together to eliminate gaps between the tubes of adjacent panels. In the beveled configuration the headers are angled such that the terminal ends of adjacent headers are parallel and positioned in a closely abutting relationship, resulting in the absence of gaps between adjacent headers and tubes.

A process produces weather-resistant laminates (1, 1′) for the encapsulation of solar cell systems (7). The process includes at least one weather-resistant plastic layer (2, 2′) being applied on a carrier material (4, 4′). The coating process shows the advantage that the relatively expensive starting products, which usually are used in the form of films, can be reduced in their thickness and in amounts thereof used. Owing to the controllable adjustment of the layer thickness of the weather-resistant layer (2, 2′), a considerable number of applications of the laminates that are produced, in particular in connection with the finished photovoltaic modules, are provided. These applications range from small energy units for emergency telephones or campers to large-area roof and facade systems and also large units and solar power plants.

A hybrid water pressure energy accumulating, tower assembly used to directly propel water pumps to raise water from low elevation reservoir(s) to high elevation reservoir(s) where it is used as a potential energy. The tower is electrically connected and positioned next to or close to a wind turbine or a wind or solar power plant. The tower includes in-tower storage reservoirs configured for storing water. The in-tower storage reservoirs could be defined by lower and upper water storage containers attached to the inner or outer surface of the tower that might be connected to other neighboring reservoir(s). The lifted water is used to generate electricity utilizing a hydropower generator.

An exemplary non-isolated DC-DC converter for a solar power plant, can be adapted to connect to a full-bridge inverter. The converter includes positive and negative input terminals, and positive and negative output terminals. A plurality of switches, diodes, inductors and capacitors are connected in a circuit configuration to the input and output terminals. A control means is connected to the circuit for controlling the switching of a first, second, and third switch between an open and closed state.

A thermocline storage tank is presented, which includes a barrier member that floats between the two fluids stored at different temperatures, physically separating and insulating them. The floating barrier includes a number of design features that broaden its application scope, enabling it for use in fields like thermal storage systems of solar power plants.

A solar power plant is provided. The solar power plant includes a plurality of first support members positioned in the front end of the solar power plant, main frames hinged to the respective first support members, a plurality of second support members positioned in the rear ends of the main frames, a plurality of sub frames rotatably installed on the main frames and arranged in parallel with one another, photovoltaic modules installed on the respective sub frames, and rotating means simultaneously rotating the sub frames with respect to the main frames by a predetermined angle in forward and reverse directions.

A method for generating a solar power output forecast for a solar power plant, comprising: using a processor, in a training mode, generating a trained artificial intelligence model using historical output data and historical input data including historical physical subsystem input data and historical physical subsystem forecasts for the solar power plant; in a runtime mode, for a predetermined forecast horizon, applying the trained artificial intelligence model to current input data including current physical subsystem input data and current physical subsystem forecasts for the solar power plant to produce the solar power output forecast; and, presenting the solar power output forecast on a display.

The present invention relates to a tank for the containment of a liquid, preferably a molten salt, said tank being associable to an aspiration pump of said liquid, wherein said tank comprises a bottom from which a lateral wall raises and wherein said aspiration pump requires a minimum level of liquid in said tank for operating, characterized in that it comprises at least an element occupying a volume and placeable inside said tank with at least a portion of said volume arranged at a height, with respect to said bottom, which is lower than said minimum level. The improved tanks of the present invention are suitable as storage tanks for liquids at elevated temperature such as molten salts to be used in heat storage systems in connection with solar power plants.

A power plant that uses a lens to focus solar energy onto a closed system loop is disclosed wherein a closed loop system is provided having a chamber that converts a liquid into a gas by absorbing heat. The heat being created has been generated by the focused solar energy. The gas drives a turbine engine, which, with the use of a generator, produces an electrical output. A heat exchange system also transfers heat energy to the chamber from the liquid storage tank and the capillary tube. The present invention may also communicate with traditional environmentally economic sources of power such as windmills and hydroelectric dams. Further, a method employing the same principals is disclosed.

The tubular radiation absorbing device (1) for solar thermal applications includes a central tube (3) made of chromium steel, particularly stainless steel; a glass tubular jacket (2) surrounding the central tube so as to form a ring-shaped space (6); and a barrier coating (4) on at least an interior side of the central tube (3), which is substantially impermeable to hydrogen and contains chromium oxide. The barrier coating (4) is provided by a process in which the central tube (3) is treated with steam containing free hydrogen at a temperature of 500° C. to 700° C.

The invention relates to a solar power plant having a plurality of solar panels arranged in a row and at least one holding element on which the solar panels are held one after the other. The solar panels can be displaced along the at least one holding element with engagement means from an extracted operating position into a retracted resting position.

An elongate photovoltaic (PV) module for use in a solar energy conversion plant for the production of electricity from incident light, the PV-module comprising a top portion with a support panel (G) carrying on a front side a plurality of electrically connected PV cells (D), and a transparent protective layer (A) sealed to the support panel (G) so as to encapsulate the PV-cells (D) between the support panel (G) and the protective layer (A), wherein prior to installation of the PV-module at the deployment site a collapsible portion of the PV-module is configured to be collapsible in a longitudinal direction by folding and/or rolling, wherein the collapsible portion includes at least the top portion, wherein the PV-module further comprises one or more integrated ballast chambers (I) in a bottom portion of the PV-module arranged on a rear side of the support panel (G), wherein said integrated ballast chamber (I) after installation of the PV-module at the deployment site contains an amount of a ballasting material (H) with a weight sufficient to immobilize the PV-module on a supporting surface of the deployment site under predetermined characteristic climate conditions for the deployment site.

A solar power plant (10) capable of generating electricity comprising a light pipe carrying highly concentrated solar light (19), a hot reservoir (24), a cold reservoir (20), and a plurality of large-scale solid-state nano-structured photonic crystals (12) that are capable of recycling out-of-band photons with transition energies associated with a photovoltaic cell (13) into photons with in-band energies associated with the same photovoltaic cell (13) when photon energy is subjected to propagation through a thermal temperature gradient that is held across a suitably nano-structured photonic crystal (12). The input thermal photons from the hot thermal reservoir (24) are shifted in energy to the optimal photovoltaic cell energy for electron-hole pair generation by work that is expanded by the heat engine to convert said input photons into phonons and then back to photons again at a new wavelength through a process of phonon rethermalization occurring inside the nano-structured photonic crystal (12).

The present invention provides a novel solar steam generator comprising solar steam boiler compartment carrying water surrounding an internal superheater compartment. The boiler compartment is exposed to a first concentrated solar radiation. The boiler compartment is configured and operable to heat water to saturated temperatures and generate saturated steam. The boiler compartment operates as an integrated cavity enclosing the superheater compartment, reducing the thermal losses of the superheater compartment to the outside environment and absorbs most of the thermal losses of the superheater compartment. The internal superheater compartment is exposed to a second concentrated solar radiation and is configured and operable to superheat the saturated steam generated in the boiler compartment. The boiler compartment and the superheater compartment are thus arranged one with respect to the other such that the boiler compartment surrounds the internal superheater compartment.

The invention relates to a method using heaving and dipping of a floating body by wave pushing to ensure energy to be transferred to a driving device in hydraulic energy way through a carrier which is provided with a plurality of buoyancy pressure pumps. The driving device converts the hydraulic energy into mechanical energy to drive a generator to generate electricity. The method has the advantages of non-pollution, low construction and running cost, safety and reliability, large electric quantity, non-occupied land and others. The method makes up for all shortcomings in the prior power plants such as: security problems of water-power plants and nuclear power plants, pollution problems of thermal power generation, high cost and small electric quantity of wind and solar power plants. The method can better meet the human demands for electricity and also can improve life level and production level.

The invention discloses an intelligent control system and control method for the cleaning of a solar photovoltaic panel, and belongs to the technical field of solar photovoltaics. The system is composed of a meteorological data module, a data acquisition module, a monitoring unit, a robot workstation and an inspection cleaning robot. The monitoring unit is used for collecting and recording a powergeneration current and the real-time meteorological data of a power plant and comparing the power generation current and the real-time meteorological data with a normal power generation efficiency attenuation model built in the system to obtain a real state that the accumulated dust affects the power generation efficiency. Through comparing the optimal cost operation data, an optimized scheme forcleaning the photovoltaic array is obtained, and the automatic cleaning robot is controlled to automatically clean the photovoltaic panel. Compared with the prior art, the system can automatically recognize local pollution of the photovoltaic panel and automatically clean he local pollution, can effectively prolong the overall cleaning period of a solar power plant, reduces the overall cleaning frequency, prolongs the service life of the photovoltaic panel, reduces the operation cost, optimizes the cleaning period, and achieves the optimization of the power generation efficiency and the operation cost.

An automated deflectometry system and method for assessing the quality of a reflective surface for use in a concentrating solar power plant. The deflectometry system comprises a holding fixture for mounting a heliostat reflector opposite a target screen having a known pattern. Digital cameras embedded in the target screen take pictures of the known pattern as reflected in the surface of the reflector. Image processing software then detects the features of the pattern in the reflector images and calculates the slope profile of the reflective surface. The slope field can be calculated by comparing the images of the reflective surface to those of a reference surface. Based on the slope profile of the reflective surface, a ray tracing calculation can be performed to simulate flux as reflected from the reflective surface onto a receiver and a quality metric can be ascribed to the heliostat reflector. The result of the quality assessment can displayed using a graphical user interface on an automated assembly line.