gar
Senior Member
- Location
- Ann Arbor, Michigan
- Occupation
- EE
110615-0815 EDT
From today's SME (Society of Manufacturing Engineers) daily briefing.
What is the efficiency comparison of a solar-voltaic vs a solar-thermal-electrical system for equal areas of solar collectors?
Separate question --- for equal life cycle cost what is the ratio of cost per KWH of solar-voltaic to solar-thermal-electrical?
A somewhat useful site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_thermal_energy
Under Power Tower Design there is one reference to a 50 megawatt system that outputs 300,000 megawatt-hours per year. This is about 6 KWH/year per watt of rating. Photovoltaic in our area are supposed to be about 1.1 KWH/year.
Other references in this article appear to be about 3 KWH/year per watt rating.
Some other sites found in looking for quantitative data, but no data. Little value, but of some interest from a general perspective.
http://solardat.uoregon.edu/SolarRadiationBasics.html
http://zebu.uoregon.edu/1998/ph162/l4.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunlight
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_constant
DOE sites that should have had data were total useless. Just generalities.
.
From today's SME (Society of Manufacturing Engineers) daily briefing.
DOE Offers Nearly $2 Billion In Loan Guarantees For Two Solar Projects.
Dow Jones Newswires (6/15, Sweet) reports that the Department of Energy announced Tuesday that it has offered almost $2 billion in conditional loan guarantees for solar power projects being developed in California by NextEra Energy Inc. and Abengoa S.A. Abengoa was offered a $1.2 billion loan guarantee to help build its 250-megawatt Mojave solar-thermal power project in San Bernardino County that is expected to be finished and generating electricity by December 2013. The agency also offered NextEra a $681.6 million loan guarantee to build the 250-megawatt Genesis solar-thermal power project on federal land in Riverside, which is expected to be operational by November 2013. Both companies have signed power purchase agreements with PG&E Corp.'s utility.
What is the efficiency comparison of a solar-voltaic vs a solar-thermal-electrical system for equal areas of solar collectors?
Separate question --- for equal life cycle cost what is the ratio of cost per KWH of solar-voltaic to solar-thermal-electrical?
A somewhat useful site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_thermal_energy
Under Power Tower Design there is one reference to a 50 megawatt system that outputs 300,000 megawatt-hours per year. This is about 6 KWH/year per watt of rating. Photovoltaic in our area are supposed to be about 1.1 KWH/year.
Other references in this article appear to be about 3 KWH/year per watt rating.
Some other sites found in looking for quantitative data, but no data. Little value, but of some interest from a general perspective.
http://solardat.uoregon.edu/SolarRadiationBasics.html
http://zebu.uoregon.edu/1998/ph162/l4.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunlight
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_constant
DOE sites that should have had data were total useless. Just generalities.
.
Last edited: