CSP Solar the 'Apt' Tech Solution for South African Company

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--A decade or so ago, when the Power Industry was wondering how the various sources of renewable energy were going to develop, there was a tendency to place a winner-takes-all bet on one of the emerging sources as the predominant source of clean, sustainable energy for the future.

At that time, Industrial Info was willing to say that solar energy applications seemed well suited to smaller, one-location, dedicated projects, which were "apt" in terms the of technology and user requirements.

This "aptness" is now becoming increasingly apparent, not only with the reduction in the cost of solar technology's basic components, but the increasing ability and willingness of project developers to hybridize the technological solutions for maximum end results.

In South Africa, mobile network operator MTN (Johannesburg) has launched Africa's first concentrated solar power (CSP) cooling system to power its data centers, in line with its official policy of reducing its carbon footprint.

"We continuously explore ways in which we can not only reduce our carbon footprint--but it will substantially reduce our electricity consumption, which will release additional capacity for the national grid," said Zunaid Bulbulia, MTN South Africa's chief executive officer.

The project application is driven by a cutting-edge technology called Linear Fresnel CSP, which uses solar irradiation and provides a peak cooling capacity of 330 kilowatts (kW). The system's mirrors follow the movement of the sun, based on global positioning system (GPS) location, orientation, rate and time. This information guides the system to track the sun to concentrate on the central absorber tube, where heat is generated.

The absorber chillers use a lithium bromide water solution, which uses water as the refrigerant. The company claims that this is a completely green solution that has zero global warming potential and no ozone depletion potential. When it rains, the mirrors move into a self-cleaning position, and on cloudy days, the mirrors turn down to a protective stow position.

REACH Renewable (Johannesburg) and AOS Consulting Engineers (Midrand, South Africa) designed the system, which was implemented jointly with Industrial Solar (Freiburg, Germany), Voltas Technologies (Halfway House, South Africa) and Luft Technik (Midrand). The project was supported by a professional team comprising ISF Services (Johannesburg), Classen Auret, Project Works (Pretoria, South Africa), DSM (Heelen, Netherlands) and Pentad (Johannesburg).

Following the "aptness" principle, it seems very possible that significant advances in power storage could come out the many smaller dedicated projects, driven and developed with cooperation of small, concentrated high-tech companies, now being implemented. If some of these prove to be practical at a utility scale, the Holy Grail of effective storage will have come from the bottom up.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, three offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.