Heat Storage and Transient Regimes in Solar Electric Power Plants.

After a brief description of the solar power station at Odeillo, a few results of the heat-balance of certain components of the plant are given. The scale of heat losses in the network and storage tank are noted. It is observed that the quality of heat restitution depends essentially on good stratification of the heat in the tank and on losses in the circuits in transient state. The experiments described make it possible to specify the conditions of heat storage and regulation of solar power stations which guarantee the storage and restitution of heat at a constant temperature, whatever the variations in the solar flux.