Central Receiver Solar Thermal Power System, Phase 1: CDRL Item 2, Pilot plant preliminary design report. Volume 1. Executive overview

Abstract

This summary introduces the McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company (MDAC) Central Receiver System Preliminary Design and reports the results of the Subsystem Research Experiments (SRE) recently completed. The baseline central receiver concept defined by the MDAC team consists of the following features: (A) An external receiver mounted on a tower, and located in a 360-deg array of sun-tracking heliostats which comprise the collector subsystem. (B) Feedwater from the electrical power generation subsystem is pumped through a riser to the receiver, where the feedwater is converted to superheated steam in a single pass through the tubes of the receiver panels. (C) The steam from the receiver is routed through a downcomer to the ground and introduced to a turbine directly for expansion and generation of electricity, and/or to a thermal storage subsystem, where the steam is condensed in charging heat exchangers to heat a dual-medium oil and rock thermal storage unit (TSU). (D) Extended operation after daylight hours is facilitated by discharging the TSU to generate steam for feeding the admission port of the turbine. (E) Overall control of the system is provided by a master control unit, which handles the interactions between subsystems that take place during startup, shutdown, and transitionsmore » between operating modes.« less