The world's first solar thermal power plant with two towers and a single generator began trial operation on Thursday in Guazhou County of northwest China's Gansu Province.
The system uses nearly 27,000 heliostats to focus sunlight onto the each of the 200-meter-high towers, heating molten salt inside them for energy storage.
Like a traditional coal plant, the concentrated sunlight heats water to generate electricity. Unlike other thermal power plants, this design can produce power at night. Molten salt stored within the towers acts like a thermal battery, retaining extra heat collected during the daytime and releasing it to keep the generators running continuously.
The innovative dual-tower design enhances overall efficiency by 24 percent over classic single-tower Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) systems, as mirrors can be shared by the two towers through intelligent control.
"The project has started full-system trial operation, which is a key stage from construction to operation of the power plant. It means all links of the project have the technical conditions for safe and stable operation, laying a solid foundation for its commissioning," said Yang Xuliang, manager of the project.
The solar thermal power plant has an installed capacity of 100,000 kilowatts. It will be part of Guazhou's 700,000-kilowatt project, which consists of a 400,000-kilowatt wind farm and a 200,000-kilowatt photovoltaic plant.
The entire project can generate 1.8 billion kilowatt-hours of clean energy annually, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 1.53 million tons.
World's first dual-tower solar thermal power plant starts trial operation
World's first dual-tower solar thermal power plant starts trial operation
World's first dual-tower solar thermal power plant starts trial operation
