[en] The OMACON (Optimized Magnetohydrodynamic Conversion) systems has been chosen for this presentation. Two solar applications are presented: 1. The solar power tower. 2. Medium temperature solar line focus collectors

[en] Technological updating, economic evaluations and future plans, for solar energy for power production, are presented here

[en] Solar scientist are well aware of the low energy density of solar radiation. A fully tracking collector at the sunniest spot on this planet will receive a little excess of 3000 kWh per year per m² of solar radiation (beam plus diffused). In most places the figure is far lower. Conversion efficiencies, from solar radiation to electricity, vary from a fraction of 1% for a photo-synthesis-hybrid-thermal converter, to to a maximum well below 40% for the highest temperature thermal systems. It is this low output per unit area that presents the major problem in achieving economic viability, discontinuity in the energy supply being, by comparison, a minor inconvenience. The economics of various solar conversion systems is presented, using an unsophisticated approach in order to see more vividly the issues involved. Economic viability depends not only on cost and output but on the cost of alternatively energy supplies at site in question

[en] 1. The effects of large scale electrical energy storage on the introduction of alternative energy sources (solar, wind) may depend on the following factors: a) The composition and utilization of the existing power plants. b) Types of locally available rate of electricity demand. c) The need for intermediate size stand alone facilities. 2. The storage may act as a deterrent to the introduction of alternative energies if there exists a large under utilized capacity of efficient base load plants. It may however facilitate the introduction of alternatives, where no large excess of this kind exists, and the predicted expansion rate may justify small scale modular addition of production and storage capacity. Availability of storage may facilitate deployment of alternatives in remote areas, in preference to long transmission lines. This may depend on favorable patterns of time correlation between availability of wind and solar solar energy on appropriate time scales: daily, weekly, local synoptic and seasonal. 3. Some of the electricity storage devices are associated with heat dissipation at useful temperatures (CAES, batteries, fuel cells). This creates a heat disposal problem, and at the same time, an opportunity for its utilization in association with the daily and seasonal heat storage. (author)