During the May Day holiday, over ten thousand heliostats gleamed under the sunlight at the construction site of the China Electric Power Construction Group’s 1 million kilowatt photovoltaic and solar thermal project in Hainan Prefecture, Repu County. Workers were busy installing the central mirrors beneath these heliostats. This project, which is a key initiative for the development of the “Shago Desert” renewable energy base in Qinghai Province, comprises a 900-megawatt photovoltaic power station, a 100-megawatt solar thermal power station, and a supporting 330-kilovolt transmission and transformation project.
In the construction of the solar thermal power station, an innovative approach has been adopted using 10,310 pentagonal heliostats to provide robust thermal energy to the receiver tower. Li Bo, the project manager from Dongfang Electric Corporation, explained that the dual-push rod drive system allows the heliostats to adjust their angle based on different sunlight conditions. This arrangement, alongside varying mirror curvatures, enhances the concentration effect and thermal efficiency, making it more effective in utilizing the solar thermal resources in the plateau region. During the May Day period, the team officially commenced the debugging work on site.
Currently, the overall structure of the main plant has been completed, and workers are engaged in the installation of power generation equipment. The core of solar thermal power generation, the receiver tower, has reached a height of 150 meters, completing 84% of its construction.
Le Guohuang, the project manager for the China Electric Power Construction Group’s 1 million kilowatt photovoltaic and solar thermal project, noted that nearly 500 workers remained on site during the holiday to focus on the installation of turbine generator sets, pressure pipelines, and building decoration tasks, ensuring timely project delivery.
In response to the construction of a new energy system, this project adopts an integrated design for photovoltaic and solar thermal systems. The 100-megawatt solar thermal power station utilizes a 20-megawatt molten salt heater to recover excess electricity from the photovoltaic station, thereby increasing heat storage duration and effectively enhancing the electricity generation efficiency of the photovoltaic station. This initiative contributes to Qinghai’s new energy system and accelerates the establishment of a national clean energy industrial hub.
Zhang Caidan, the executive deputy manager of the project, stated that the photovoltaic station is nearly complete and currently undergoing debugging, while the solar thermal station is focused on the receiver tower’s construction and installation of main plant equipment. The plan is to complete the grid connection for the photovoltaic station by May and finish the tower’s circulation and turbine commissioning by the end of December. The project’s completion will significantly impact the sustainable development and carbon peak and neutrality goals of the region.
The 100-megawatt solar thermal power station of China Electric Power Construction Group employs a molten salt tower technology route, with a total heliostat field area of approximately 500,000 square meters and a receiver power rating of 260 MWt. It utilizes a binary molten salt as the heat transfer and storage medium, providing an equivalent heat storage duration of 8 hours. The heat exchange system employs a natural circulation steam generation system. The turbine is preliminarily selected to be a super high-pressure, high-temperature, single intermediate reheat, eight-stage extraction condensing unit with a rated power of 100 megawatts. The project is designed to generate an average annual grid-connected electricity output of 13,078 MWh, with an average equivalent full-load operation time of 1,308 hours over 25 years.
Original article by NenPower, If reposted, please credit the source: https://nenpower.com/blog/csp-project-in-rehe-completes-150-meter-heat-tower-construction-as-part-of-100-mw-solar-thermal-initiative/
