Steam Turbine Solutions for Solarthermal Power Plants

High oil and gas prices and awareness of greenhouse effects are contributing to an increasing demand for renewable energy. Solar power is one renewable energy option to satisfy that growing demand.

A typical process is to gather solar radiation in collectors, concentrating the heat to tubes in their center, transferring it to synthetic oil in the tubes and further to heat exchangers close to the power plant. The heat exchanger transfers the heat thus generated into superheated steam, to run a steam turbine for generation of electrical power.

The oil which transfers the heat cannot sustain a consistently high temperature. To counteract this, Siemens offers a steam turbine reheat concept in a two-module arrangement (SST-700 RH), where each of the modules can be optimized for its specific operating conditions. 

SST-700 industrial steam turbine for Solargenix Energy and Acciona Energy, SA. The turbine operates in a solar thermal plant in Eldorado Valley, which is 20 miles south of Boulder City, Nevada.