The specialist for process heat and heat transfer, heat 11 from Bielefeld, Germany, currently takes three heaters in Southern Spain for the 50 megawatt (MW) parabolic trough power plant “Arenales” near the town of Morón de la Frontera in Andalusia in operation. The heaters are among the key components of the heat transfer system of the power plant. After the commissioning, the capacity of the power plant will be sufficient to supply approximately 50.000 Spanish households with environmentally friendly electricity.
In this type of solar thermal power plant, the irradiation is focused by parabolic reflectors onto an absorber pipe in which thermal oil circulates as heat transfer medium. The heated oil is used to generate steam by a heat exchanger which generates power via a steam turbine, as in a conventional power plant. The power plant Arenales has also thermal salt storage systems so that power can be generated also at night. “Hereby an almost 24-hour operation is possible in the summer months – a major advantage over the photovaltaic plants!” explains Stephan Kraus, general manager of heat 11 solar.
The plants of heat 11 are used, among other things, for heating the heat transfer circuit and for controlled start-up of the power plant before sunrise and have a capacity of 16 MW each. The boilers used for this purpose are about 15 m long and 3,5 mm in diameter. The scope of supply includes not only boilers, burners and chimneys, also the required control systems and the supervision of the construction and installation of all three plants.
Heaters for solar thermal power plants are a part of the heat 11 range of products in the field of renewable energies which also includes plants for the production and treatment of heat, electricity and gas from biomass.
Comments are closed.