An economic evaluation comparison of solar water pumping system with engine pumping system for rice cultivation Kasem Treephak, Jutturit Thongpron, Dhirasak Somsak et al. The properties of liquid metals Broofchaven, September 1966 J E Enderby Adaptive robust control of chaotic oscillations in power system with excitation limits Abstract. The use of liquid metals in solar power systems is not new. The receiver tests with liquid sodium in the 1980s at the Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA) already

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... proved the feasibility of liquid metals as heat transfer fluid. Despite the high efficiency achieved with that receiver, further investigation of liquid metals in solar power systems was stopped due to a sodium spray fire. Recently, the topic has become interesting again and the gained experience during the last 30 years of liquid metals handling is applied to the concentrated solar power community. In this paper, recent activities of the Helmholtz Alliance LIMTECH concerning liquid metals for solar power systems are presented. In addition to the components and system simulations also the experimental setup and results are included. Liquid metals as heat transfer fluids in solar thermal electricity (STE) generation Concentrating solar thermal power plants are capable of electricity generation that is dispatchable and renewable. The future competitiveness of this technology depends on the reduction of the cost of electricity generation. State-of-the-art solar thermal power plants use thermal oils, water/steam, air or molten salts as heat transfer fluids (HTF). Those fluids should ideally be chemically stable at high temperatures, have a high boiling temperature, a low melting point, low cost, enable safe operation and have good corrosion properties. Although water and air are highly available and cheap fluids, they are not suitable for directly storing thermal energy at high temperatures. Oils can typically not operate at temperatures that would allow for high efficiency in the thermal-to-electric power conversion process. Molten 'solar salt' (mass specific composition: 60 % NaNO 3 and 40 % KNO 3 ) is cheap and can be used as direct storage medium due to its high heat capacity. For these reasons, it is the state-of-the art HTF for STE plants with thermal storage. Solar salt melts at 220 °C. Under strong solar irradiation, it can be operated up to