Making the right Choice

Once fully commercialized, the SolarDish® technology system will be offered in different configurations based on combinations of the generator power rating, the TES thermal energy capacity, and the size of the dish/concentrator. The different system configurations aim to optimize the customer specific performance requirements based on the plant’s geographic location DNI resource, the Solar Multiple (SM) and capacity factor requirements, the project scale and available capex, annual energy yield expectations, energy dispatch flexibility and storage hours at full power, load profile design requirements, specific market electricity tariff structures, demand profiles, etc.

• The Free-piston Stirling Engine based power block comes in two versions: The 4KW engine and the 7.1KW A combination of two 7.1 KW engines for a 14.2KW rated power block would also be possible allowing for third power block option.
• The TES would come in three different sizes depending on its thermal energy storage capacity. A small 170 KWh-thermal version, a 300 KWh-thermal medium version, and a large 600 KWh-thermal version offering up to 12 hours of storage for the 4KW, the 7.1KW, and the 14.2KW power block options, respectively.
• The Dish will also be offered in three different sizes, a 7m diameter, a 9m diameter, and an 11m diameter, offering 38, 63, and 95 sqm of solar radiation aperture capture, respectively.

Based on the specific power project’s location DNI resource values and the project’s commercial exploitation strategy, the designer of the project, after working out some specific calculations and sensitivity analysis, can reach an optimum combination and a most efficient and cost-effective configuration.