Future solar thermal power generation market has broad prospects

At present, all countries in the world are making great efforts to develop new energy power generation industries to alleviate the high pollution and high energy consumption of fossil fuels. Taking China as an example, the idea of ​​multiple energy clean development is now proposed. Various forms of new energy power generation have received extensive attention. Among them, photo-thermal power generation technology has received increasing attention due to its broad development prospects.

Solar thermal power generation is increasingly sought after Solar thermal power generation has gradually warmed up in the past two years following the investment boom in hydropower, wind power, and photovoltaic power generation, and it has entered the horizon of investors and strategic decision makers. Photothermal power generation can be equipped with energy storage devices to make up for the unstable and discontinuous defects in new energy sources such as wind power and photovoltaic power generation. It has the advantages of low cost, zero pollution, stability and continuity, and is suitable for grid-connected power generation. In addition, solar thermal power generation can be operated in conjunction with thermal power generation, making it highly flexible and more conducive to the stability and regulation of the power system.

China’s enthusiasm for light and heat projects is increasing. Many companies actively applied for a pilot project for solar thermal innovation. The “12th Five-Year Plan for Solar Power Generation (Draft for Soliciting Opinions)” pointed out that by the end of 2015, the installed capacity of grid-connected CSP will be 1 million kilowatts.

The status quo of solar thermal power generation in China China is one of the countries with abundant solar energy resources. The area with more than 2,000 hours of sunshine per year accounts for more than two-thirds of the country's total area. Among them, the conditions for the development of desert solar power plants and The Gobi area is about 300,000 square kilometers, and 23% of the country's total desert area. Photothermal power has high requirements for direct solar radiation (DNI). The light and heat resources in the Hami and Turpan regions of Gansu Hexi Corridor, Qinghai, Tibet, and Xinjiang are in good conditions. The potential for development is estimated to be 8 million kilowatts.

China's solar thermal power generation started relatively late. On June 11, 2007, China's first 70-kilowatt solar tower solar thermal power generation system passed the appraisal and acceptance in Nanjing. On July 1, 2010, Asia's first tower solar thermal power station was built in Yanqing, Beijing.

With the country’s increasing emphasis on renewable energy sources, the development of solar thermal power generation continues to accelerate. At present, many cities in western China are brewing power generation projects for solar thermal power generation. The country has listed CSP as the first of the new energy incentives in the industry guidance catalogue, which is a major benefit for the industrialization of CSP systems. With the scaled production of related equipment, the cost of CSP will also continue to decline during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period.

In April 2011, the Inner Mongolia 50 MW solar trough project was tendered. Datang New Energy Co., Ltd. won the bid at the lowest price of 0.9399 yuan/kWh. According to relevant data, the total investment of the CSP project in Inner Mongolia is about 1.6 billion yuan, and it can generate more than 120 million kilowatt-hours per year.

Economic breakthrough is the key to large-scale development. The principle of solar thermal power generation is to collect sunlight through a reflector into a solar energy collection device, use solar energy to heat the heat transfer medium (liquid or gas) inside the collection device, and then heat the water to form a steam. Or directly drive the generator to generate electricity. In general, solar thermal power generation has four types of systems: trough, tower, dish, and linear Fresnel.

Trough technology has been commercialized on a large scale in foreign countries. The technology is relatively mature, but the power generation process requires a lot of water; the tower technology is equivalent to the trough technology, rapid development, but also requires a lot of water; disc technology to send a kilowatt-hour electricity only It requires 1.4 liters of water, can adapt to deserts and Gobi regions with long sunshine hours, has a high technological conversion rate, but can not be equipped with energy storage devices, and is small in scale, generally applied to distributed generation; the linear Fresnel-type power generation system is simplified Trough power generation system is less efficient.

Solar thermal power generation technology has matured, and whether its economic performance is a key factor in its large-scale development. At present, the cost of solar thermal power without heat storage is comparable to the cost of photovoltaic power generation. If thermal storage devices are considered, the utilization hours of solar thermal power generation are higher, and the overall economic performance is better than that of photovoltaic power generation. At present, the kilowatt-hour electricity cost of trough power stations is slightly lower than that of tower-type power plants, and the cost of these two kinds of power generation technologies declines as the system capacity increases; the kilowatt-hour power cost of the disc-type power plants is high, and does not decrease as the system capacity increases. . If solar thermal power generation can be economically competitive in the future, it will be expected to become the basic power load in energy planning in many countries.

Recommendations for the development of solar thermal power The solar thermal power generation has received extensive attention due to its good compatibility with the existing power grids, high photoelectric conversion rate, continuous and stable power generation and strong peaking power generation capacity, and green and environmentally friendly power generation equipment. Under the general trend of global low-carbon economy and new energy, solar thermal power generation may play an important role in China's future energy supply.

For Chinese companies, the threshold of CSP technology is not high, but in the hot oil cycle, energy storage and heat exchange, Chinese companies still need to further research, the key is in the system technology and experience, it should Learned more from Spain and Germany and other European countries, down-to-earth and steady development. China should mobilize the enthusiasm of relevant units in the industry chain, increase training through actual power plant projects, increase research and development efforts, and improve the technological level of all links in the industry chain. The government should formulate and improve relevant laws and regulations, increase quality control, establish a quality assessment system, and ensure that the industry regulates healthy development from the initial stage.