Developments for future implementation in Dish-Stirling technology

The dish-Stirling technology for power generation, using a Stirling engine fed with a renewable energy such as solar, means a promising development regarding electricity generation. The dish-Stirling technology presents the highest efficiency, around 30%, in relation to other solar energy generation systems. However the technology status has not achieved enough advancement to be competitive with other renewable energy technologies. A state-of-the art review has been carried out in order to identify the developments needed to guarantee the feasibility of using the dish-Stirling technology. These are, on the one hand the system hybridization, in such a way that guarantees continuous operation, implying amortization improvement and on the other hand the thermal storage, providing system operation with stored energy during some periods such as transients. In this paper, a complete review of literature concerning the state-of-the-art and developments of dish-Stirling technology has been carried out, presenting the most outstanding issues considered for future implementation.