The China-built Redstone Concentrated Solar Thermal Power (CSP) Project in South Africa, the first-of-its-kind in sub-Saharan Africa, is due to be connected to the grid in early September 2024.
CSP plants produce electricity by concentrating solar thermal energy using mirrors to reflect the sun to a receiver that collects and stores the heat energy to power a steam turbine connected to an electricity generator.
CSP is used in utility-scale applications to help provide power to an electricity grid. The stored thermal energy can be used during the day but also when solar irradiance is low, such as on a cloudy day. CSP plants typically store enough energy to provide continuous electrical power over night.
With CSP, the heat transfer fluid used to move the heat from the absorbers to the engine has high heating capacities, allowing this fluid to retain heat for a long period of time. Storing thermal energy with the use of thermal energy storage tanks is much easier than storing electricity.
Sources:
- People’s Daily, Sep 3, 2024. https://www.facebook.com/PeoplesDaily/posts/983983430439615
- Energy Sage, Feb 29, 2024. https://www.energysage.com/…/contentrated-solar-power…/