MACCSol Research Project

MACCSol – Modular Air Cooled Condensers for Concentrated Solar Power

Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) – the generation of power using solar radiation to generate steam, has the potential to provide a significant portion of the EU’s renewable energy targets. A number of large European and international initiatives have targeted vast desert areas of the Middle East and North Africa for the deployment of CSP.

Solar power generation from these regions has the potential to provide a quarter of the EU’s total renewable energy target by 2020. However, the European CSP industry has identified the shortage of water to cool the condensers of the CSP plants as being a significant barrier to CSP’s deployment. Therefore, efficient and cost effective air cooled condenser technologies are required, as current air cooled condenser technologies are highly inefficient.

Through its work in the power industry, RR Projects realised that it had significant expertise to bring to this challenge. This requirement was recognised in a recent EU Energy call (FP7-ENERGY-2010-1) in a topic titled “Dry cooling methods for multi-MW sized concentrated solar power plants”. In partnership with The Stokes Institute in the University of Limerick in Ireland, we coordinated a successful proposal to this call.

The resulting project, with seven partners across Europe and with funding of almost six million Euro, was launched by the An Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Mr. Brian Cowen TD on 3rd September 2010. Our project is called MACCSol – Modular Air Cooled Condensers for Concentrated Solar Power.

There are two approaches to this project; one is to assess techniques for pre-cooling air which enters condensers in CSP plants, and two, to investigate heat exchanger performance degradation over the lifetime of a condenser as a result of harsh operating environments. This study, which will culminate with a commercially marketable product, will take four years. Watch this space for updates.