Recent Developments in Heat Transfer Fluids Used for Solar Thermal Energy Applications

Solar energy can be harnessed to generate power by way of either solar photo voltaic route or by concentrating the sun’s rays to generate high temperatures and high magnitude of heat (concentrated solar power or CSP). The concentrated heat generated by sun’s energy can be transported using suitable heat transfer fluids to heat exchanger where this heat is transferred to convert water into steam and steam turbine is then driven to produce electricity. Out of the two options of solar energy, PV andCSP, CSP based thermal route offers distinct advantages in bringing down the leastcost of electricity generated by way of providing storage and dispatch ability of solar power during offsun 
periods.

The heat that is absorbed on the surfaces of such solar collectors is then transferred through a heat transfer media, generally liquid in nature, which takes the collected heat to the point of use. In most of the concentrating solar power plants, sun’s heat is captured by a receiver, transferred to a thermo fluid – also known as heat transfer fluid; and this heat from the thermo fluid is then used in a heat exchanger to convert steam from water . Solar thermal collectors are defined by the USA Energy Information Administration as low-, medium- , or high-temperature collectors based on their temperatures of operation in the following manner.

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