Solar Steam Generation
Ausra gains funding to execute its strategy of solar-driven steam power generation. Interesting note: Using Ausra’s current solar technologies, all U.S. electric power, day and night, can be generated using a land area smaller than 92 by 92 miles. ...
... "Ausra's power plants drive steam turbines with sunshine. Locally manufactured solar concentrators made of steel and glass focus sunlight to boil water, generating high-pressure steam that drives conventional turbine generators. New thermal energy storage systems using pressurized water and low cost materials will provide for on-demand generation day and night. Ausra's core technology, the Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) solar steam generation system, was originally conceived in the early 1990s by founder David Mills while at Sydney University. Mills later worked with Graham Morrison to develop the idea between 1995 and 2001. " ...
Via Ausra: Funding to build and operate utility-scale solar thermal electric power plants
Comments
Your reference to the origin of this technology in Australia is not correct. It is historically incorrect. The system was jointly founded and developed from the early 1990’s by both Graham Morrison and David Mills, and both continue to work on the project. Mills developed the optical design of the concentrator while Morrison developed the thermal design of the absorber and system operation.
Posted by: Prue Blew | February 18, 2008 05:19 AM