Renewable Energy Conversion, Transmission, and Storage

BENT SØRENSEN

22

E

NGINE CONVERSION

OF SOLAR ENERGY

The conversion of heat to shaft power or electricity is generally achieved by

one of the thermodynamic cycles, examples of which were shown in Fig. 3.1.

The cycles may be closed as in Fig. 3.1, or they may be “open”, in that the

working fluid is not recycled through the cooling step (4-1 in most of the

cycles shown in Fig. 3.1). Instead, new fluid is added for the heating or

compression stage, and “used” fluid is rejected after the expansion stage.

It should be kept in mind that the thermodynamic cycles convert heat of

temperature T into work plus some residual heat of temperature above the