Advances in dry cooling for concentrating solar thermal (CST) power plants

Comparing with wet cooling, using dry cooling in solar thermal power plants can save fresh water of about 3.5 m3/MWh. This chapter introduces the advances in dry cooling technology for solar thermal power plants. It starts with the introduction of the current cooling technologies suitable for solar thermal power plants and compares the advantages and disadvantages of each technology. It then presents the essential equations and procedures of sizing a dry cooling system for solar thermal power plant. Finally, the advances made in dry cooling technologies for solar power plants were presented: the advances made in dry cooling include solar enhanced natural draft cooling tower; water hybrid cooling and wind break wall hybrid natural draft dry cooling tower