CHAPTER 7Solar Power Plants – Even More Power from the Sun
When we think of power plants, we usually imagine large central facilities with cooling towers and enormous chimneys emitting clouds of smoke. In terms of the concept itself, a power plant is merely a technical installation that converts a particular energy source into electricity. A solar power plant produces electric energy from solar radiation. We have already learned about one type of solar power plant – photovoltaic or PV systems. In principle, a small PV system sited on a single-family house does indeed constitute a solar power plant. However, since most people envisage a power plant as something much larger than a few square metres of solar modules, this chapter is devoted to large-scale systems that generate electricity from sunlight.
PV systems can in fact reach a size that is comparable with conventional power plants. Year after year new PV power plants have been breaking their own records in terms of size. PV systems with a capacity in the region of 5 MW and module areas of around 40 000 m2 have already been installed on the roofs of industrial buildings. However, existing roofs are usually not appropriate for even larger systems. Plants with 50, 100, or even 1000 MW can only be achieved with ground-mounted systems. Large PV plants are technically very similar to the small systems on single-family houses, except that they are larger in scale. This chapter therefore deals with other types of large-scale solar ...