Reduction In Parasitic Load In A Solar Thermal Power Plant To Improve Its Efficiency

Rapid development in technology and improvement in life style of present generation has caused anincreased dependence on electricity and hence on sources of energy which are unfortunately, nonrenewable.The present world is looking up at renewable sources of energy to combat looming energycrisis. This is necessitated not only due to depleting non renewable sources, but also due to increasedCO2 content and consequent global warming. So far solar energy has been looked upon as the mostideal alternative source of energy. The reason behind this is the abundance of solar energy coupledwith a large number of ways in which it can be harnessed for purposes such as heating, drying or forgenerating electricity. For large scale electricity generation with high degree of efficiency, solarthermal power is considered a better option over photo-voltaic. A few projects worldwide are operatingand many are in different stages of construction in different parts of the world. As a learningtechnology, a large magnitude of research work over improvement in this technology is also going on.One challenge faced by industry is to reduce the parasitic load involved in generation of electricity inthese plants. The parasitic load contributes in reducing the system efficiency and needs to be eliminatedor minimized. The present paper investigates the causes of parasitic load in a solar thermal plant andtries to find out ways of its reduction.