Progress beyond the state of the art:
A Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant uses heat from the sun as a primary source of energy by the bundling of sunlight. CSP plants use focusing collector surfaces (e.g. glass mirrors) to focus incident sunlight onto an absorber (e.g. a black tube filled with thermal oil). During this process, the collectors track the sun. Depending on the design, these power plants achieve higher efficiencies than photovoltaic systems, but have higher CAPEX, operating and maintenance costs and are required to be of a specific minimum size. Compared to photovoltaic systems, it enables the integration of a low-cost energy storage system.
Heliovis has developed and patented a new class of inflatable solar collectors for solar thermal power plants, using the most extreme lightweight construction technology thereby reducing the main costs. Costs are typically expressed in terms of the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), which is the total cost of producing a unit of electricity (e.g. a kWh), including all occurring costs (CAPEX, OPEX) over the lifetime of the plant. Compared to most advanced glass mirror-based glass technologies HELIOtube will reduce the CAPEX for the solar solar field by 55%.
This cost advantage is achieved through:
1. Less expensive materials used and reduced amount needed; roll-to-roll production, reduced need for foundations due to the lightness and stability of the design;
2. Very low logistics and installation costs
Economic Impact:
The global market for CSP is a fast growing market, estimated to triple in three years, till 4,900 MW capacity installed planned. In addition to this figure, Saudi Arabia alone plans to tender 1,000 MW of CSP-plants per year until 2032. The SME beneficiaries estimate to enter the market with solar thermal applications and a significant number of HELIOtubes produced.
Societal Impact:
European Commission has declared a shortage of investments in research and innovation activities in the CSP sector, which could improve the practical viability of setting up large-scale power plants. Also TRANS-CSP estimates a total cumulative investment of €47 billion until 2020 and €395 billion until 2050 will be necessary for CSP and HVDC (High-Voltage, Direct Current) gridlines installations if exports to Europe from Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions are to be considered. The objectives of the HELIOVIS project address these global challenges and specifically align with the EU 2020 targets with respect to climate change and energy, being: greenhouse gas emission 20% lower than 1990 levels; 20% of energy from renewables; 20% increase in energy efficiency. Heliovis innovative solution, HELIOtube, enables a minimal carbon footprint power plant. Each solar-produced kWh avoids a kWh created by power stations burning coal, gas and oil, on average 686 gCO2/kWh, a significant amount when considering the potential market size for the HELIOtube enabled CSP generation.
