With the gradual acceptance and widespread use of solar power, more and more people are becoming interested in what a solar power plant is and its principles and types. Today we will be discussing issues related to solar power plants.
The following are some of the issues that we will discuss today.
1. Definition of solar power plant
A solar power plant is a type of plant that utilizes renewable solar energy to generate electricity. That is, light energy is converted into electricity by artificial means. Solar power plant is a tool for human science to utilize renewable clean energy. Solar photovoltaic power plants operate on the basis of photons and light energy from the sun’s rays. The process is completely green and has excellent efficiency.
2. Types of Solar Power Plants
The types of solar power plants are basically categorized into two types.
The first type is solar thermal power plant.
As the name suggests solar thermal power plants still utilize the traditional thermal cycle. But unlike thermal power generation which is traditionally based on chemical fuels, solar thermal power plants utilize clean and polluting solar energy resources instead of fossil energy which causes pollution in the society. There are five main types of solar thermal power plants: tower systems, trough systems, disk systems, solar ponds, and solar tower hot air flow power generation. The first three are concentrating solar thermal power systems and the last two are non-concentrating.
The second category is solar panel power plants.
Solar photovoltaic power plants operate based on photons and light energy from the sun’s rays. Basically, most of them use polycrystalline or monocrystalline solar panels as the basic components of solar power generation, which convert light energy directly into electricity, unlike thermal power generation, which needs to be converted through thermal energy conversion
Which solar photovoltaic power plant is divided into distributed and several categories. The first is a distributed functional power plant, generally installed on the roof or ground. The second is the centralized power plant, which is mainly a large-scale power generation project, applied in desert, desert, Gobi and other areas. The third type is the building-integrated PV power plant, which refers to the integration of PV power generation technology with the building structure so that the PV system becomes part of the building. After subdividing down, there are household PV power plant, commercial PV power plant, floating PV power plant.
3. The working principle of solar power plant
Solar thermal power plant through the water or other substances and devices will be converted to solar radiation energy into electrical energy, this process to be used in the collector. The use of large-scale arrays of parabolic or disc-shaped mirrors to collect solar thermal energy, through the heat exchanger to provide steam, combined with the traditional turbine generator process, so as to achieve the purpose of power generation. It is less expensive compared to PV power plants. And it is essentially the same process as conventional thermal power generation with less complexity.
The process of conversion is as follows: using collectors (concentrating mirrors) and heat absorbers (boilers) to converge dispersed solar radiant energy into concentrated thermal energy, which is turned into mechanical energy by heat exchangers and turbine generators, and then into electrical energy. The difference between it and general thermal power plant is that its power source is not coal or fuel oil, but the sun’s radiant energy.
Generally speaking, most solar power plants use many concentrating mirrors set up on the ground to collect sunlight at different angles and directions, and reflect it centrally to a special boiler at the top of a high tower, so that the water in the boiler is heated into high-pressure steam, which is used to drive a turbine, which in turn drives a generator to generate electricity.
Photovoltaic Power Plant The core component of the photovoltaic cell is mainly composed of three main parts: solar panel (module), controller and inverter, and the main parts are composed of electronic components. Solar cells are connected in series and then encapsulated for protection to form large-area solar cell modules, together with power controllers and other components to form a photovoltaic power generation device. When light strikes the semiconductor material, the charge distribution within the semiconductor material changes, generating electric potential and current. This process is clean, non-polluting and highly efficient, and is more widely utilized in all aspects.
Solar power plants have greatly changed human life as a tool for producing a clean energy generation. Whether it is solar photovoltaic or solar thermal power generation, they have the same starting point and end point, only through different methods of converting light into
Thermal energy. Photovoltaic power stations can be divided into various types according to their scale, application scenarios and technical characteristics, such as distributed photovoltaic power stations, centralized photovoltaic power stations, building-integrated photovoltaic power stations and so on. These different types of PV power plants provide green and clean energy for various occasions and promote sustainable development on a global scale. With the advancement of technology and cost reduction, PV power generation will play a more important role in the future.
