DESIGN OPTIONS FOR SOLAR TOTAL ENERGY SYSTEMS.

A total energy system is an on-site local electrical power plant in which the rejected heat from the turbine exhaust is used as fully as the load permits for low level heat applications such as space heating, domestic hot water, and absorption chillers. Such systems have a special appeal for solar energy applications because the collected solar energy is more fully utilized than in a central power plant at the same operating temperatures, and because the long piping runs required for distributed fields of solar collectors do not lead to economics of scale for very large solar electric power plants.