Question

What are the Efficiency, temperature, rate power, and concentration for slat-Gradient solar ponds?

Answer 1

Solar ponds- these are huge heat energy collectors. These can be used for many applications such as in power generation, process heating etc. ( Basically it is pool of water of depth range 1-5 Meyer with dessolved salt to Maintain stable density gradient.)

Temperature = solar pond temperature upto 90deg C. Generally stable operating temperature is 60-70deg C.

Efficiency = is generally 20%. Ratio of energy extracted from the pond to its estimated energy capacity. By darkening the bottom efficiency can be improved.

Rate power = the largest pond was in Israel worked till 1988. Are of solar pond is 210000 square metres & power generation is 5MW.

Construction = solar renewable energy is abundant in nature but only 30% of radiation can reach about 2mrter depth from eater surface.in real normall pool water temperature will not raise above ambient temperature because water keeps circulating. In solar pond we add sodium chloride or magnesium chloride to the bottom layers of water in pond to create stable density gradient. further, we use transparent honeycomb structure to prevent mixing of top and bottom water layers in pond. Honeycomb structure trap stagnant air and provide good transparency for radiations. Hense heat will be traped at bottom of the solar pond.