Geography Of Alberta Essay
5.1.2 Geography of Alberta
“Occupying the northern half of the North American continent, the province of Alberta is situated between 60 degrees and 49 degrees latitude north along the Canada-U.S. border. Spanning 661,185 square km (255,200 square miles), Alberta covers almost 7% of Canada’s land mass.” [10] Alberta territory occupies almost 7% of whole Canada’s land mass. The territory geographically comprises diverse natural topographies such as lakes, rivers, glaciers, mountains, forests, badlands, wetlands and open plains. The type of territory consists of plains at 90 percentages in Alberta with forest, peat land, grassland and parkland.
5.2 Selection of the Appropriate Location
A selective site of installing solar thermal power system is one of main keys to determine if the targeted amount of energy can be generated. Numerous sites in Alberta were on the list, and then the choice narrowed down to Lethbridge airport and Medicine hat which is the best climate conditioned location. The conditions include air temperature, an amount of daily solar radiation and wind speed etc. The most affected …show more content…
factor is the amount of daily radiation exposure which is the highest value (over 4 KWh/ m²/d) among all of the sites in Alberta. (See Appendix C2) Eventually, Lethbridge airport was selected because the site is not only more spacious but also closer to Calgary. The location is shown in the map below.
6.0 System Design
Solar thermal system design means carrying out analyses containing complex calculus and considering many variables in system equiment.
6.1 System Equipment
In this chapter, detailed information on main components is provided with the specifications.
6.1.1 Fresnel Reflector
This collector consists of a collector, receiver and tracking system. A steam drum is an optional component. The Fresnel collector seems to operate same as parabolic trough outwardly but, this system has different operational principles which are known as Fresnel lens effect. Fresnel lens effect supports a reflector (concentrating mirrors) to maximize collecting the heat energy with a large aperture and short focal length. This reflector is flat mirrored to collect heat energy. Instead, tracking system and secondary mirrors supplement shortcoming which is low efficiency and energy
loss.
This combination of the components in the system reinforces the performance and system efficiency as the normal intensity of concentrating heat energy gets almost 30 times. A stationary receiver comprises a secondary mirror and an absorber tube. Secondary mirror functions as it captures solar radiation reflected from a primary mirror and then send the radiation to a tube absorber. The several rows of primary mirrors (reflector) individually move so that the positioning makes an optimum angle between the sun light and receiver for the highest system efficiency. This is the tracking system. [3] [4] The heat provided by the system can reach up to 400°C and operate with pressures of 120 bars at a maximum. “Besides water, thermal oil or high-temperature glycol it can also generate steam directly. Due to its modular design, the system can be scaled up from a few hundred kW to several MW.” [3]
“Occupying the northern half of the North American continent, the province of Alberta is situated between 60 degrees and 49 degrees latitude north along the Canada-U.S. border. Spanning 661,185 square km (255,200 square miles), Alberta covers almost 7% of Canada’s land mass.” [10] Alberta territory occupies almost 7% of whole Canada’s land mass. The territory geographically comprises diverse natural topographies such as lakes, rivers, glaciers, mountains, forests, badlands, wetlands and open plains. The type of territory consists of plains at 90 percentages in Alberta with forest, peat land, grassland and parkland.
5.2 Selection of the Appropriate Location
A selective site of installing solar thermal power system is one of main keys to determine if the targeted amount of energy can be generated. Numerous sites in Alberta were on the list, and then the choice narrowed down to Lethbridge airport and Medicine hat which is the best climate conditioned location. The conditions include air temperature, an amount of daily solar radiation and wind speed etc. The most affected …show more content…
factor is the amount of daily radiation exposure which is the highest value (over 4 KWh/ m²/d) among all of the sites in Alberta. (See Appendix C2) Eventually, Lethbridge airport was selected because the site is not only more spacious but also closer to Calgary. The location is shown in the map below.
6.0 System Design
Solar thermal system design means carrying out analyses containing complex calculus and considering many variables in system equiment.
6.1 System Equipment
In this chapter, detailed information on main components is provided with the specifications.
6.1.1 Fresnel Reflector
This collector consists of a collector, receiver and tracking system. A steam drum is an optional component. The Fresnel collector seems to operate same as parabolic trough outwardly but, this system has different operational principles which are known as Fresnel lens effect. Fresnel lens effect supports a reflector (concentrating mirrors) to maximize collecting the heat energy with a large aperture and short focal length. This reflector is flat mirrored to collect heat energy. Instead, tracking system and secondary mirrors supplement shortcoming which is low efficiency and energy
loss.
This combination of the components in the system reinforces the performance and system efficiency as the normal intensity of concentrating heat energy gets almost 30 times. A stationary receiver comprises a secondary mirror and an absorber tube. Secondary mirror functions as it captures solar radiation reflected from a primary mirror and then send the radiation to a tube absorber. The several rows of primary mirrors (reflector) individually move so that the positioning makes an optimum angle between the sun light and receiver for the highest system efficiency. This is the tracking system. [3] [4] The heat provided by the system can reach up to 400°C and operate with pressures of 120 bars at a maximum. “Besides water, thermal oil or high-temperature glycol it can also generate steam directly. Due to its modular design, the system can be scaled up from a few hundred kW to several MW.” [3]