China's CSP industry is booming

With the photovoltaic industry in recent years in China, solar thermal power generation is gradually becoming another form of complementary solar power generation. Experts believe that although China's CSP has a relatively late start in China, it has obvious advantages in terms of characteristics, and its development speed and scale are expected to surpass the level of photovoltaics.

The reporter learned from the China Sun Valley International Low Carbon Technology Expo held in Dezhou, Shandong Province that solar thermal power generation has received more and more attention due to its advantages of low energy consumption, own technology, and convenient grid connection.

Compared with the import of photovoltaic raw materials and the purchase of production technology, the core technology of solar thermal power generation is controlled by domestic enterprises. Huang Ming, vice president of the International Solar Energy Society and chairman of Huangming Solar Energy Co., Ltd., said that as early as 2001, his company developed its own CSP technology and it has now become the fourth company in the world to have mature CSP technology.

Huang Ming said that the core components required for CSP, such as heliostats, slotted coated steel pipes, and trough concentrators, can all be produced on their own and have surpassed international standards.

According to reports, solar thermal power generation can be divided into four types: dish type, tower type, trough type and Fresnel type. A Fresnel-type high-temperature thermal power station named "Solar Great Wall" was exhibited at the expo. The power station was built directly on top of a power plant with an installed capacity of 2.5 megawatts and an annual power generation of approximately 4.5 million kWh, equivalent to 7,000 power plants. Family's annual usage.

Prior to this, China's first self-owned intellectual property tower solar thermal power plant, jointly researched by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huangming Company and Huadian Group, has been installed in Beijing Yanqing. According to the design, the power generation capacity of the power station is 1 megawatt. When it is completed, the annual power generation will reach 2.7 million degrees, equivalent to the amount of electricity generated by more than 1,100 tons of standard coal.

According to reports, solar thermal power generation is based on the "light-heat-electricity" principle, as opposed to the process of direct photovoltaic power generation from light to electricity. This type of power generation determines that CSP generates AC power and is therefore easier to connect to the grid. At the same time, the production of CSP equipment is affected by the price of raw materials, resulting in less pollution.

“Our high-temperature trough solar energy equipment has been put into use in Turpan, Xinjiang. The 180 kW plant has been put into trial operation, and the power generation system has passed the approval and can enter the national grid system, so it can be widely used in daily life and production. Electricity, said Wang Xiaoyu, general manager of Huayuan New Energy Engineering Company, which participated in the Expo.

At present, CSP is still in its infancy in China, and people's recognition is still not high enough. However, experts from the China Solar Thermal Industry Association stated that since CSP technology and raw materials are all independently developed, the future of solar thermal power generation is The pace of development, scale is expected to come from behind, more than photovoltaic.

At the same time, experts pointed out that photovoltaics and solar thermal power are the technical forms of solar power generation. There is no such thing as the mainstream in the world. It is just that each country focuses on development based on its own resource conditions and strategic needs. For example, Germany and Japan are the major markets for photovoltaics, and Spain and the United States have more installed solar thermal power plants.

Huang Ming said that the most important thing to be solved for CSP is the cost. It is estimated that the greater the scale of CSP, the lower the cost. For example, in a gigawatt-scale CSP station, the cost of electricity generation can be reduced to 0.5 yuan per kilowatt-hour, while the cost of solar thermal power generation at stations below 5 megawatts is about 2 yuan per kilowatt-hour, so solar thermal power generation is suitable for large Scale power generation.

He said that in recent years, soaring energy prices and concerns about global climate change have prompted many countries to renew their hopes for solar thermal power generation, which has stimulated technological and financial investment in solar thermal power generation. For example, the incentive measure adopted by the United States is to invest in the solar power industry. The federal government will give tax incentives.

China’s Medium- and Long-Term Development Plan for Renewable Energies proposes that by 2010, the total installed capacity of solar thermal power generation in China will be 50,000 kilowatts. By 2020, the total capacity of solar thermal power generation will reach 200,000 kilowatts, which is comparable to that of photovoltaics.

According to Liu Qi, deputy director of the National Energy Administration, China has abundant solar energy resources and has carried out effective work in solar energy applications such as solar water heaters and solar photovoltaic power generation. It has become a country that has an important impact on the world's solar energy use and equipment manufacturing.