FOREWORD The NASA Office of Energy Programs is presently conducting a study of the potential utility of large orbital central power stations as a possible means to help meet our country's demands for electricity. As part of this study, JPL has been directed to perform a survey of potential terrestrial energy conversion systems for comparison with orbital central power stations. The candidate terrestrial options being reviewed include conventional power plants and both solar thermal and photovoltaic conversion. Among the solar thermal options, the following are being studied: low temperature flat plate collectors, medium temperature single-axis tracking linear concentrators, and high temperature two-axis tracking point concentrators, namely the dispersed parabolic dish and the central receiver concepts. This report presents a preliminary survey of solar thermal power plants using a distributed network of point focusing dish collectors. Such important characteristics as size, performance, operating temperatures, cost and state-of-the-art of the technology are given. Maximum use of existing literature data was made. The work is being performed under the technical direction and guidance of Mr. Simon Manson of the Energy Technology Applications Division.
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