Temperature Control And Investigation Of Parabolic Dish Based Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) In Malaysia Environment

In the Renewable Energy Act 2011, the focus is on solar energy particularly the solar Photovoltaic, whereby the solar thermal, such as the Parabolic Dish Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) is not given enough attention. This could be due to the lack of a thorough investigation of implementing solar CSP in the Malaysia environment. Nowadays, even though many researchers continue to investigate and study about Parabolic Dish based on Concentration Solar Power (CSP), the findings are not conclusive and do not provide accurate evidence and proof on the potential of CSP development in Malaysia. The missing link in the Parabolic Dish Stirling Engine system model is the control systems, which vary the amount of working gas in the Stirling engine. The temperature of the heater in PD system which has been modelled is easily overheated that which will cause damage to the heater material that will lead to low output efficiency, high thermal losses and effect to the lifespan of the PD system. Therefore, the primary aim of this project was to design a control system to maximize output efficiency during a normal operation by maintaining the heater/absorber temperature at the highest safe operating point to prevent excessive range of threshold to avoid damage to the heater material besides carry out a fundamental investigation on solar CSP, by focusing on Parabolic Dish type in the Malaysia environment. Recent literatures which address the CSP were reviewed. The preliminary considerations and basic thermodynamics of the Stirling engine were to derive a model of dish and Stirling engine. According to literature, the PD system achieves the highest solar for electric efficiency and it is small and modular among CSP technologies. The proposed model showed the idea of PD systems with control system model which vary the amount of working gas in the Stirling engine. The control systems were designed using Matlab /Simulink 2012a. Based on the developed linearized model, an improved temperature controller with transient droop characteristic and Mean Pressure Control (MPC) has been proposed. This temperature controller is effective in reducing the temperature that will improve the performance of the PD system. The overall performance of the system improved more than 78% in output power and energy. Besides, the system can improve in term of sensitivity compare with the PD system without compensate. In addition, the system also reduce thermal losses up to 97.6% which shows significant improvement for the output efficiency to the system. The analysis shows that the PD system is feasible in term of technical but not economically feasible. Unless, when levelised tariff of solar thermal is increase more than RM20.2499/kWh by electrical policy similar as photovoltaic, then the PD system is economic feasible in the Malaysia environment at the moment