Start Date

4-1976 8:00 AM

Description

This presentation describes the Sandia Laboratories 1 Solar Total Energy Program. This program consists of designing, building, installing, and operating a field of concentrating parabolic trough solar collectors which provide energy at 310°C, a 32-kWe organic Rankine cycle power plant, and the heating and cooling equipment to utilize the cascaded, low-temperature energy from the turbine/generator. Included in the presentation are descriptions of the total energy system, its components, its performance characteristics, a status report, and a discussion of future plans.

Total energy is an energy cascading concept in which the normally wasted heat from electrical power generation is used for heating and cooling of buildings and for domestic hot water. Thus, greater utility is made of the energy content in the fuel, be it fossil fuel, nuclear, solar, or an alternate energy form. In conventional electric power plants, about one-third of the energy in the coal pile or oil barrel is converted to electrical energy. In total energy 'facilities, about two-thirds of the energy is put to use. Thus, it would seem that the total energy concept would always result in energy conservation and superior economics. Unfortunately, such is not always the case. A small penalty in electrical conversion efficiency must usually be accepted in order to produce thermal energy at temperatures high enough to be useful for heating and cooling applications. This fact combined with the fact that thermal energy is difficult to store and transport means that the total energy concept is most practical for those applications where a market for thermal energy is physically close to the electrical generation site or vice versa.

Comments

Solar Energy

Session Chairman: Howard Harrenstien, Director, Florida Solar Energy Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida,

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Apr 1st, 8:00 AM

Solar Total Energy At Sandia Labs

This presentation describes the Sandia Laboratories 1 Solar Total Energy Program. This program consists of designing, building, installing, and operating a field of concentrating parabolic trough solar collectors which provide energy at 310°C, a 32-kWe organic Rankine cycle power plant, and the heating and cooling equipment to utilize the cascaded, low-temperature energy from the turbine/generator. Included in the presentation are descriptions of the total energy system, its components, its performance characteristics, a status report, and a discussion of future plans.

Total energy is an energy cascading concept in which the normally wasted heat from electrical power generation is used for heating and cooling of buildings and for domestic hot water. Thus, greater utility is made of the energy content in the fuel, be it fossil fuel, nuclear, solar, or an alternate energy form. In conventional electric power plants, about one-third of the energy in the coal pile or oil barrel is converted to electrical energy. In total energy 'facilities, about two-thirds of the energy is put to use. Thus, it would seem that the total energy concept would always result in energy conservation and superior economics. Unfortunately, such is not always the case. A small penalty in electrical conversion efficiency must usually be accepted in order to produce thermal energy at temperatures high enough to be useful for heating and cooling applications. This fact combined with the fact that thermal energy is difficult to store and transport means that the total energy concept is most practical for those applications where a market for thermal energy is physically close to the electrical generation site or vice versa.

 

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