At a 20MW concentrating solar power (CSP) plant, some 10,000 mirrors reflect sunlight onto 10,000 receiver tubes, each of which must operate efficiently to get the maximum impact from the sun. Yet, operators don't have a good sense for which among the 10,000 tubes may have an air leak, or a hydrogen leak, or have been shattered by a flung rock, writes Bill Scanlon at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
At a 20MW concentrating solar power (CSP) plant, some 10,000 mirrors reflect sunlight onto 10,000 receiver tubes, each of which must operate efficiently to get the maximum impact from the sun. Yet, operators don't have a good sense for which among the 10,000 tubes may have an air leak, or a hydrogen leak, or have been shattered by a flung rock, writes Bill Scanlon at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory.