Microturbine Energy Systems developed for Concentrated Solar Power Applications

Capstone Turbine Corporation , one of the world’s leading clean technology manufacturer of microturbine energy systems, announced recently that HelioFocus and Capstone successfully demonstrated a product converting sunlight to electricity with a solar receiver driving a microturbine. The demonstration was conducted with a Capstone C65 microturbine by HelioFocus and Capstone on a fixed optical tower using heliostats at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Ness Ziona, Israel, HelioFocus Ltd. engages in the development of modular, high efficiency Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) systems.

The traditional Capstone microturbine engine uses gaseous or liquid fuels to heat combustion air.

The HelioFocus Solar Concentrator focuses enough sunlight energy to provide heat to drive the microturbine. This renewable solution offers higher solar conversion efficiencies over traditional solar photovoltaic systems. In addition the increased power density of this system should reduce the amount of land required by a traditional solar photovoltaic system.

“The concept scales to all Capstone microturbine products, from the C30 through the C1000 Series, generating 30kW to 5MW of electricity,” said Mark Gilbreth, Capstone Executive Vice President and CTO. “The commercial Concentrated Solar Power product should compare favorably in cost to photovoltaic.”

“The value proposition driving this joint product development effort between HelioFocus and Capstone is that it gives solar projects the capability to generate energy more efficiently during the day and to continue to provide energy at night,” said Darren Jamison, Capstone President and CEO. “Efficiency is extremely important in solar power systems as a means to reduce size and space, and ultimately drive down installation costs,” added Jamison.

About Capstone Turbine Corporation

Capstone Turbine Corporation (www.capstoneturbine.com) /quotes/comstock/15*!cpst/quotes/nls/cpst (CPST 0.98, -0.02, -2.00%) is the world’s leading producer of low-emission microturbine systems, and was the first to market commercially viable microturbine energy products. Capstone Turbine has shipped over 5,000 Capstone MicroTurbine(R) systems to customers worldwide. These award-winning systems have logged millions of documented runtime operating hours. Capstone Turbine is a member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Combined Heat and Power Partnership, which is committed to improving the efficiency of the nation’s energy infrastructure and reducing emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases. A UL-Certified ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004 certified company, Capstone is headquartered in the Los Angeles area with sales and/or service centers in the New York Metro Area, Mexico City, Nottingham, Shanghai and Singapore

Source: Capstone Turbine Company

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Posted by Tracey A. Smith on Jul 28 2010. Filed under Solar Investment, Solar Thermal, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry