Solar Dish-Stirling Power Plants and Related Grid Interconnection Issues

Author

Zhang, Yixin ; Osborn, Bruce

Author_Institution

Stirling Energy Syst., Inc., Phoenix, AZ

fYear

2007

fDate

24-28 June 2007

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

5

Abstract

A unique solar technology is entering the competitive utility-scale power plant market. This solar dish-Stirling technology combines a mirrored concentrator dish with a high-efficiency Stirling engine specially designed to convert sunlight to electricity. In the next a few years, two large-scale power plants will be constructed in California using this innovative technology with a potential total capacity of 1,750 MW. The tens of thousands of small induction generators installed in the power facility create a new set of challenges for utility grid interconnection. The article introduces the solar dish-Stirling technology and related interconnection issues including power factor correction, self excitation over voltage, and low voltage ride through. Options to meet the grid interconnection requirements are also discussed.

Keywords

Stirling engines; power grids; power markets; power system interconnection; solar power stations; California; Stirling engine; low voltage ride through; mirrored concentrator dish; power 1750 MW; power factor correction; self excitation over voltage; solar dish-Stirling power plants; utility grid interconnection; utility-scale power plant market; Induction generators; Integrated circuit interconnections; Power factor correction; Power generation; Power system interconnection; Reactive power; Solar energy; Solar power generation; Stirling engines; Voltage; AC generators; circuit breakers; modeling; overvoltage protection; power conditioning; power system stability; reactive power; solar energy; solar power generation; static VAR compensators;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Power Engineering Society General Meeting, 2007. IEEE

Conference_Location

Tampa, FL

ISSN

1932-5517

Print_ISBN

1-4244-1296-X

Electronic_ISBN

1932-5517

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PES.2007.386027

Filename

4275793