On April 30, a major milestone was achieved at the world’s highest-altitude concentrated solar power (CSP) tower project—the Tushuo 100 MW CSP plant in Amdo County, Tibet—where all 15,927 heliostats manufactured by Dongfang Boiler have been successfully delivered.
As a key energy project in the Tibet Autonomous Region and the region’s first tower-type CSP plant, the Amdo project is located in the Tanggula Mountains at an elevation exceeding 4,650 meters. The plant adopts advanced tower CSP technology and is equipped with an 8-hour molten salt thermal energy storage system. The total reflective area of the heliostat field exceeds 800,000 square meters.
I became interested in how solar power plants operate at night, and AI provided an explanation of their operation:
"1. How the System Works (Technical Process)Heat Collection (Daytime): Thousands of computer-controlled mirrors (heliostats) direct sunlight onto a central receiver atop a tower. Liquid salt is continuously pumped through this receiver, where the sun heats it to extreme temperatures—typically ranging from 290 to 565 C.
2.Energy Storage: The heated salt drains into a massive, heavily insulated "hot" storage tank. The walls of this tank trap the heat with minimal losses (less than 1% of thermal energy per day). The salt can remain liquid and piping hot for many hours or even days.
3.Power Generation (Day and Night): Whenever the electrical grid demands power (such as after sunset or during peak evening hours), the hot salt is pumped from the storage tank into a steam generator. There, it transfers its heat to water, turning it into high-pressure steam. This steam drives a conventional steam turbine, which generates electricity.
4.Closing the Loop: Once the salt cools down to approximately 290 C, it flows into a second "cold" storage tank. From there, it is pumped back up the solar tower during the day to be heated all over again."
