Solar ponds

Technical Report · Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1980

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6426978· OSTI ID:6426978

Jayadev, T. S.; Edesess, M.

This report first describes the different types of solar ponds including the nonconvecting salt gradient pond and various saltless pond designs. It then discusses the availability and cost of salts for salt gradient ponds, and compares the economics of salty and saltless ponds as a function of salt cost. A simple computational model is developed to approximate solar pond performance. This model is later used to size solar ponds for district heating and industrial process heat applications. For district heating, ponds are sized to provide space conditioning for a group of homes, in different regions of the United States. Size requirements is on the order of one acre for a group of 25 to 50 homes. An economic analysis is performed of solar ponds used in two industrial process heat applications. The analysis finds that solar ponds are competitive when conventional heat sources are priced at $5 per million Btu and expected to rise in price at a rate of 10% per year. The application of solar ponds to the generation of electricity is also discussed. Total solar pond potential for displacing conventional energy sources is estimated in the range of from one to six quadrillion Btu per year in the near and intermediate future.

• Research Organization: Solar Energy Research Inst. (SERI), Golden, CO (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-77CH00178
• OSTI ID: 6426978
• Report Number(s): SERI/TR-731-587
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
SOLAR PONDS
REVIEWS
COST
DESIGN
DISTRICT HEATING
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
INDUSTRY
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PERFORMANCE
POWER GENERATION
SALINITY GRADIENTS
SALTS
SOLAR PROCESS HEAT
USES
DOCUMENT TYPES
ECONOMICS
ENERGY
EQUIPMENT
HEAT
HEATING
PONDS
PROCESS HEAT
SOLAR COLLECTORS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
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