Combined Heat & Power Using the Infinia Concentrated Solar - CHP PowerDish System

Abstract

The Infinia PowerDish Combined Heat and Power (CHP) demonstration was intended to showcase and assess the capabilities of the Infinia PowerDish CHP technology to generate clean solar electricity as well as thermal energy for domestic hot water and space heat requirements. When applied to Department of Defense (DoD) facilities, at both domestic facilities and forward operating bases (FOB), the PowerDish CHP could reduce the consumption of utility electricity and fossil fuels, thus reducing air and carbon emission pollution as well as stabilizing or even reducing total energy costs for the application site. An alternative to the PowerDish CHP technology for providing non-fossil fuel electric generation and thermal energy for end-use application would be to install two systems: a photovoltaic (PV) system for electricity and a solar thermal system for water and space heating applications. Each of the specific performance objectives was addressed in the demonstration which included: monitoring estimated facility energy usage; maximizing renewable energy usage; maximizing savings for systems economics; minimize direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; monitoring facility metering; monitoring system maintenance; and monitoring system integration. Overall, the demonstration clearly confirmed that the PowerDish CHP technology can provide clean solar electricity as well as thermal energy for water and space heating applications. However, while the amount of electric production was somewhat less than expected, the quantity of thermal energy delivered to the facility for end-use applications was significantly lower than expected. This report and the Final Report detail the reasons for the thermal energy underperformance as well as the lessons learned and performance improvements gleaned from this demonstration. The PowerDish CHP system is a modified Infinia PowerDish solar system.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 2013
Accession Number
ADA602231

Entities

Organizations

  • Environmental Security Technology Certification Program

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Climate Change
  • Control Systems
  • Department Of Defense
  • Direct Current
  • Economic Analysis
  • Electrical Grids
  • Energy Conservation
  • Energy Consumption
  • Energy Storage
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Greenhouse Effect
  • Greenhouse Gases
  • Heat Energy
  • Lessons Learned
  • Maintenance Personnel
  • Solar Energy
  • Solar System

Fields of Study

  • Engineering
  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Environmental Engineering.
  • Maritime Security/Maritime Homeland Security
  • Solar Photovoltaics and Thermoelectric Devices.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster