A Concentrating Solar Power prototype for validating a new Fresnel-based plant design

A prototype of adequate scale is being built in the south campus of the Technical University of Madrid (in Getafe, Spain) to validate a number of innovations of a new Advanced Linear Fresnel Reflector featured by: A modular concept of receiver unit made of several tubes in a multi-pass configuration, with a size that can be made at a workshop or a factory, transported by ordinary trucks to the plant site, and assembled into the supporting structure in a simple way with a moving crane. A set of mirrors with the proper curvature, made of originally flat mirrors which are bent to the required distortion A newly developed focusing system, which will also be part of the supporting structure of the mirrors. The use of a gas as heat carrier fluid, notably CO2, at a working pressure close to 10 MPa. A number of collecting tubes which will gather the outlets of the 8 receiver modules to send it to an air-cooler for restoring the gas temperature to the value at the beginning of the thermal circuit, which includes a gas blower (or compressor-circulator) for restoring the pressure level. The purpose is to minimize the amount of total mass of the different materials used in the capture of solar thermal power, which is sent to the power block for its valuation. It is expected to provide a significant reduction of costs compared to the complexity of the current methods to capture high temperature solar energy. In two years, the goal is to develop this type of solar field up to industrial and commercial scale using the prototype as a guarantee for that quest. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.