Worlds Largest Solar Concentrator – The Big Dish

ABOUT (Solar Concentrator) BIG DISH TECHNOLOGY

• 96% Thermal Efficiency of the Receiver.
• World’s most efficient superheated steam receiver which produces steam at 50 bar, 500°C
• Factory in Field Technology (FiF): The complete dish shall be manufactured on-site that ensures cost-effectiveness and rapid delivery including sandwiching and baking of mirrors to give it strength and curvature
• System Life of 30 Years

What is SG-4 BigDish?

The Big Dish is the world’s largest solar concentrating dish with highly accurate optics, highest efficiency conversion of sunlight to thermal energy and 2-axis tracking.

Basically, solar irradiation is incident on set of 380 concave mirrors, placed parabolically. This causes the light to reflect and focus at a particular point, which is called the focal point.

At focal point, in a uniquely designed receiver, water constantly flows at a designed pressure and flow rate and gets converted into superheated steam (dry steam).

This system is equipped with intelligent dual-axis tracker to automatically track the position of the Sun and rotate to receive the maximum radiation.

The present (Solar Concentrator) System at Muni Seva Ashram is designed to produce steam at 450 kg/hr (peak) for about 8 hours, depending upon the weather and DNI available.?DNI: Direct Normal Irradiation is the amount of irradiation per unit area that we receive from the sun and falls perpendicularly onto the mirrors.

Along with the BigDish, the system consists of a Control Room, Storage Tanks, Pumps, Piping and Auxiliary Electric Equipment.

Based on simulation of Solar Radiation Data (DNI) by NREL, the annual estimated generation of Steam @ 9 bar, 1770C is?612 Tonnes?and Hot Water @ 3 bar, 650C is?3108 Liters. [The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), is the United States’ primary laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development.]

Here, at the Muni Seva Ashram, we have installed a Thermal Storage system along with the BigDish. This will allow the Ashram to access steam even in Non-Sunny Hours. The Solar Boiler (receiver) which is placed at the focus of the Dish, the piping route from dish to storage vessels and storage system are all, IBR Approved.

The site has a weather monitoring system including a Pyro heliometer at the site, which shall be continually measuring the DNI, temperature and other meteorological and climate observations at the site.

Benefits to the Client:

This steam and pressured hot water generated from BigDish shall be used majorly for applications in

I. Laundry

II. Cooking

III. Sterilization in the Kailash Cancer Hospital

IV. Bathing

The technology can prove to be a game changer for any industry having requirements of

o High Pressure/Low Pressure Steam

o Hot Water

o Industrial Scale Air Conditioning

This causes the Ashram to burn lesser fuel and import lesser electricity to cater their annual thermal energy needs and saves them both electricity and fuel.

PROFILE OF DNI AND STEAM GENERATION

INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION

The Big dish Technology can be adopted for delivering wide range of applications across various industries such as:

Industries with Thermal applications:

View Full Detailed PDF About The Big Dish Solar Concentrator

Credit: Sunrise CSP