Thursday, June 22, 2017

Khi Solar One

Khi Solar One (KSO) is a 50 MW solar power tower plant located in Upington, South Africa, which was commissioned in February, 2016. KSO has 4,120 heliostats on 346 acres of land. Each heliostat is as large as 140 square meters, reflecting sunlight to a tower as tall as 205 meters. KSO has two hours of thermal storage. The power plant is expected to generate a total of 180 GWh per year.

A low-resolution simulation of Energy3D predicts that on February 28 (close to when the Google Maps image was most likely taken) and June 28 (a winter day in the southern hemisphere), the total daily input to the solar tower (not the output of electricity generated by the turbines) is about 2.6 MWh and 1.9 MWh, respectively, as is shown in the graphs below.

The Energy3D model of the KSO can be downloaded from this web page, along with other solar power plants.



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