Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Comparative Analysis Of Designing Solar And Geothermal Power Plants: A Case Study, Roberto Venegas, Sarada Kuravi, Krishna Kota, Mary Helen Mccay

Mechanical and Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Geothermal and solar thermal are renewable, clean energy sources with immense potential for electricity generation. Concentrating Solar Power can achieve very high temperatures and high efficiencies compared to geothermal power plants. However, it is intermittent and must be coupled with thermal storage or another source for continuous power generation. Geothermal resources exist in varying temperatures but are too small for economic power production; however, it is not intermittent. This paper briefly summarizes the location-specific design considerations for geothermal and solar thermal plants. The performance of both these types of power plants is analysed in terms of capacity factor, thermal energy …