The top floor of the 60 meters tall tower houses the solar receiver and boiler. 2,150 heliostats, each 8 square meters in size, reflect solar energy and can produce a total of 8 MW thermal energy, which translates to 1.5 MW electric energy.
The heated air either goes to the boiler as part of the steam cycle or else is directed to thermal storage. Using thermal energy stored in a ceramic heat sink, the Jülich facility can produce its full 1.5 MW output for up to an hour, which could be useful in starting the facility each morning.
So far two solar facilities have been built in Spain, the so-called PS 10, an 11 MW saturated steam facility that began operating in 2007, and PS 20, a 20 MW facility that began operating in April. The German Jülich Solar Tower facility is a 1.5MW project. Next to be announced and operative later this month is the Aora 100KW Samar facility (at Eilot region, Israel), based on innovative receiver and a dual purpose micro-gas turbine, so no use of steam at all. This would be the most advanced solar tower facility worldwide…. Stay tuned for details.
