High thermal inertia solar cavity receiver development

The industry is consolidating their interest in decarbonizing their energy sources. Decarbonization in terms of electricity has come a long way with the integration of vast solar and wind generation capacity. However, the thermal needs of the industry are still relying highly on fossil fuels.

The industrial demand for heat represents 37 % of the total Energy Consumption worldwide, yet only 9% of it is met with renewable energy. Solar CSP is a great and one of the few alternatives to generate renewable high temperature heat, but the CSP industry needs to accommodate to the specific needs of this industry.

An advanced high thermal inertia dome cavity solar receiver will be developed for medium and high temperature process heat applications and Green Hydrogen production with SOEC Electrolysers and thermo catalytic process. Such receiver is conceived to address the main operational problems of the State-of-the-art alternative systems, derived from their high thermal stress working conditions.

The resulting prototype will form the basis for an easy to industrialize, flexible and safe to operate system, optimized from a cost­performance standpoint. Optical, heat transfer, structural, and material design aspects of the unique receiver will be thoroughly evaluated, and the development and experimental demonstration will be reported.