motivation - principle - concentrator - stirling enginereceiver - [costs & markets]

Fig.8: Achieved and expected investment cost for the SBP 10 kWe Dish-Stirling Systems in TDM (thousand German marks)

Solar Dish/Stirling systems have environmental, operational, and potential economic advantages over more conventional power generation options because they:
- have zero emissions since they operate on solar energy;
- operate more quietly than diesel or gasoline engines;
- are easier to operate and maintain than conventional engines;
- start up and shut down automatically;
- operate for long periods with minimal maintenance, and
- in combination with bio-gas they guarantee a 24 h indigenous electricity supply.

Fig.9: Expected Dish-Stirling levelised energy cost in comparison with Diesel engines.

Because of their size and durability, solar Dish Stirling systems are well suited for non-traditional power generation. Individual units range in size from 10 to 50 kilowatts (kW). They can operate independently of power grids in remote sunny locations for providing power to isolated villages.
Dish-Stirling systems may be linked to provide utility-scale power to a transmission grid. Such systems could be located near consumers, substantially reducing the need for building or upgrading transmission capacity.
Largely because of their high efficiency, the cost of these systems is expected to be lower than that of any other solar systems for these applications (Fig.8 and 9).