Full Spectrum Solar Energy - Concentrated Solar Power with Thermal Storage for Heat and Power (FSSE

Project FSSE aims to develop a concentrated solar capture (CSP) system with storage and a high temperature Organic Rankine Cycle Unit (ORC) that can be utilized on demand to produce carbon neutral power and heat.

The FSSE technology converts the energy captured from the sun into heat and power and makes it available in our energy systems – electrical grid and district heating systems.

This is interesting for the Danish/Northern Europe region, but we also see export potentials to Asia where the ORC can support PV systems in electricity production at night-time from the energy storage.

The project has two technology paths – the concentrated solar capture system with energy storage and a high temperature ORC for production electricity and heat. This all together will bring the total system efficiency to 90%.

The systems are flexible and build as units of 200 KW each. It is easily scalable and can be extend-ed with more solar collectors and variable sizes of heat exchangers and ORC units.

Two major technologies are being developed/refined in this project:

• Parabolic Solar receivers with receiver tubes based on nanotechnology.
• Organic Rankine Cycle working with high temperature heat transfer fluid and co-production of heat and power.

These two major technologies are combined into one system where the advantage is to utilize the high temperatures achieved in the parabolic solar receivers in the ORC, to produce both power and district heating.

By developing small scale FSSE systems with thermal capacities between 200 kW < Q < 1 MW, it is the aim to contribute to reduce carbon emissions e.g. to the Danish district heating providers where this technology can cover part of the demand during peak hours.

Many smaller Danish consumer owned district heating plants are still depending on stand-by solutions using fossil fuel to cover peak demands.

The FSSE technology provides and easy and simple way of reducing operation hours of the stand-by units mainly based on natural gas, which will also reduce carbon emissions.

The prototype will produce 30 kW electricity and 150 kW district heating. Later editions of the FSSE unit are foreseen to produce 200 kW/h/electricity and 600 kW/h heat of combined energy, with a small footprint of 3500 m2