Make Mini Solar Power Plant (Concentrated Sun Light)

The Concentrated solar thermal power plant produces electricity from the heat from sun’s rays. It’s an effective source of large-scale energy production.

Firstly, a solar farm is made up of heliostats. These are computer controlled mirrors which follow the movement of the sun in order to best reflect its rays towards a central point throughout the day. A solar farm can include from several hundred to several thousand heliostats which communicate with each other over WiFi in order to optimize their yield.

These heliostats reflect and concentrate sunlight onto a large heat exchanger called receiver that sits on top of a tower which located in the center of the solar farm. Within the receiver, fluid flows through the piping that forms the external walls. This fluid absorbs the heat from the concentrated sunlight.

How to Make Concentrated Solar Thermal Power Plant Video

In this technology the fluid utilized is molten salt containing chemical components whose thermal properties are of particular interest. It’s an ideal heat capture medium because it maintains a wider operating temperature range in the liquid state allowing the system to operate at low pressure for superior and safe energy capture and storage.

How to Make Concentrated Solar Thermal Power Tower

Heliostats are the building blocks of a concentrated solar energy. Watch the video carefully to learn how we constructed a heliostats model from reeper pieces, aluminium sheets and mirror pieces. Take care while handling glass pieces. The more heliostats you make the more beautiful it would be.

Step 1:

• Cut small pieces of reeper as shown in the figure or video

• Fix fisher/plugs to one end of both pieces

• Join two parts using screws

• Now it is flexible to move in two-dimensions

Step 2:

• Cut small pieces of aluminium sheet dimensions 2”*0.5”

• Cut small pieces of mirrors using glass cutter

• Take care while handling glass

• Now is the time to connect all the components together

Step 3:

• Connect Aluminium pieces on the reeper

• Carefully connect glass pieces on the reeper-aluminium arrangement

Step 4:

• Even in a real Power plant heliostats doesn’t require any heavy foundation to work. In this project, we can use hard boards, ACP sheet, etc. to fix heliostats around the tower.

• Take 3*3F piece of ACP

• Mark 3 circles with adequate displacement between heliostats.

• Use a hand drill to make 4mm holes

• Use drill carefully.

• Connect all 100 heliostats on a 3*3 feet ACP sheet as shown in the video.

Step 5: Making the Heat Absorber

• Buy a new carbonated water drinks

• Don’t open it

• Instead, make a small hole

• Take a cycle tube valve

• Cut the end

• Then insert the tread side in the bottle

• Seal it using m-seal

Step 6: Making the Turbine Propeller

Step 7

• Take a piece of aluminium sheet

• Cut it as shown in the video

• Connect the propeller to the dynamo

• Fix the dynamo on the heat absorber or steam generator

• Valve nozzle should be near to the ends of propeller leaves

• Attach a 1F PVC pipe at the center of ACP sheet (tower)

• Place the steam generator on the tower

• Place the mini solar power plant outdoor in a sunny day

• Adjust all the heliostats so that sunlight reflect towards the heat absorber

• Wait at least 30 minutes

• Heat absorber will absorb sunlight and will generate steam

• This high-pressure steam turns the turbine connected to dynamo generating electricity

Mini solar power plant is ready!