Integration of the Advanced Dish Development System

The Advanced Dish Development System (ADDS) project is an advanced, system-level dish/Stirling solar power system development activity aimed at the remote power marketplace. Unlike any of the other U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) program sponsored activities, the ADDS project is being integrated by Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). Although SNL and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) help the DOE manage the CSP program, previous system development activities were all integrated by industry partners, with SNL and NREL providing technical support. The ADDS project is a technology development activity with the specific objective of fielding a remote, off-grid, water-pumping dish/Stirling system on an Indian reservation in the Southwestern U.S. To meet this objective, the WGAssociates (WGA) solar concentrator and controls, and the SOLO 161 Stirling Power Conversion Unit (PCU) were selected for the major components. The WGA concentrator and controls technology are well advanced and utilize structural facet mirror technology and concentrator structure and controls technology developed over decades with DOE and private investment. The SOLO 161 Stirling PCU, including solar receiver and controls, has also benefited from decades of development. Two ADDS designs have been developed. A first-generation (Mod 1) grid-connected prototype system was fielded at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF) in Albuquerque, NM in the summer of 1999, primarily for the purpose of reliability improvement. In 2000, an upgraded, second-generation (Mod 2) system, including a standalone water-pumping ADDS was developed, and in 2001 it was installed and demonstrated at the NSTTF. While the value of remote power electricity is greater than for utility power, (estimates range from 20 to more than 50 cents per kilowatt-hour) the remote environment presents additional requirements. The ADDS project has been a first step in the development and demonstration of a dish/Stirling system that can potentially address this large commercial opportunity. Integration of the ADDS has also been challenging and rewarding. As a result of the ADDS project, insights beyond specific component expertise have been obtained. Even though we have not been able to achieve our original objective of fielding a dish/Stirling system on an Indian reservation because of reduce budgets, the ADDS project has been successful in that most of the original system specifications and technical objectives were met or exceeded. It has also served as a valuable test bed for the evaluation of advanced technology in a system context. The ADDS technology and results are presented in other papers. In this paper, the integration philosophy and approaches utilized in the various stages of the ADDS project are presented and described. Insights gained from integration of the ADDS are also discussed.Copyright © 2003 by ASME