Travelling Energy Collectors

Abstract

Almost all modern solar and wind energy plants can be used only as auxiliary energy sources because of their intermittent character. However, geothermal systems can produce energy continuously. But, geothermal power plants need expensive wells, and wells do not always give high-temperature underground water. It is possible to improve the performance of the plant by combining the different features of these mentioned systems. It is possible to obtain hot water not from drills but by using solar and wind energy installations placed on mobile platforms (travelling energy collectors, TECs) that transports hot water to the power plant, where it is stored in special tanks. A similar procedure is possible for cold water. To transform thermal energy, stored in the hot water and cold water tanks into electric energy, it is possible to use conventional equipment of geothermal power plants. In this chapter, we give estimations of some parameters of the proposed power generation system based on travelling energy collectors. The estimations show that the power plant based on travelling energy collectors can be considered as a base load source of electric energy.