An Overview of Solar Thermal Power Generation Systems; Components and Applications

Population growth in global scale causes increasing consumption of fossil fuels in various industries. This makes an inconvenient situation for the environment. To prevent this, using renewable energies especially solar energy can be a green solution. A free, abundant and clean source of energy which can produce sustainable electricity. To make the most of solar energy, concentrated solar power (CSP) systems integrated with cost effective thermal energy storage (TES) systems are among the best options. Components of such a system for producing enough free and clean energy such as solar thermal collectors, TES systems and different types of heat transfer (HTF) fluids in solar field are reviewed in this paper.