Abstract
More recently, there has been an increasing interest in the use of concentrated solar thermal energy for the production of electricity, but also for the use in cogeneration and trigeneration. In this sense, the increasing use of solar thermal energy in urban areas is expected, and its impact on the environment is inducing an increasing interest. The paper analyses the impact of concentrated solar power technology (linear Fresnel, parabolic trough, parabolic dish, and central tower) on the environment in terms of water consumption, land use, wasted heat, emissions of gases, emissions of pollutants that include the leakage of heat transfer fluid through pipelines and tanks, impact on flora and fauna, impact of noise and visual impact. The impact on the environment is different for different concentrated solar power technologies and depends on whether thermal energy storage is included in the plant. Water is mainly used for cooling the system, but also for cleaning the surface of the mirror. To reduce water consumption, other cooling technologies (e.g. air cooling) are being developed. The available data from the literature show large variances depending on the size of the plant, geographic location and applied technology.
Highlights
Solar power production can be achieved in two different ways: a) by using a photovoltaic technique that enables the conversion of total solar radiation directly into electricity, b) by applying thermal techniques based on the transformation of solar radiation into heat to generate steam used in the turbine as a working fluid, as it is the case with classical thermoelectric power plants
The life-cycle analysis (LCA) defines boundary conditions to include processes, such as manufacturing, construction, operation, and maintenance, dismantling and disposal
If the Concentrated Solar Plants (CSP) plant is placed in a populated place, e.g. on the roof of a building and serves for cogeneration or trigeneration, special attention must be paid to heat transfer fluid (HTF)
Summary
Solar power production can be achieved in two different ways: a) by using a photovoltaic technique that enables the conversion of total solar radiation directly into electricity, b) by applying thermal techniques based on the transformation of solar radiation (direct fraction only) into heat to generate steam used in the turbine as a working fluid, as it is the case with classical thermoelectric power plants. Some power plants may have a thermal storage system which allows them to produce electricity after sunset, increasing the total production capacity of the plant (Fig. 1). All CSP systems can extend the time of solar operation to base load by applying larger collector fields and thermal energy storage. The CSP unit in combination with the classical boiler unit can be used for electricity and heat co-generation In this case, the plant achieves efficiency up to 85%. The life-cycle analysis (LCA) defines boundary conditions to include processes, such as manufacturing (extraction of raw materials, transport to the factory, component manufacturing processes, transportation to the regional warehouse), construction (land preparation, construction of auxiliary facilities, plant assembly), operation, and maintenance (production of spare parts and their transportation to the site, fuel consumption of maintenance vehicles, water consumption for mirror cleaning), dismantling (energy required to disassemble plant components) and disposal (energy required for transporting waste to landfills, recycling of components, incinerator or the energy required for final disposal)
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