ANALYSIS OF ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY OF SOLAR ENERGY APPLICATION WITHIN ELECTRICITY AND HEAT PRODUCTION USING A STEAM TURBINE IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Converting solar energy into heat energy and then receiving steam and its use in a steam turbine is widely applied in Western Europe, North Africa and North America. Javier Bonilla, Ebru Usta, Daniel Horst, Christopher Newton, Manuel Romero-Alvarez and other researchers who used in their study such designs as solar tower, hub Stirling parabolic concentrator and the Stirling engine, contributed a lot to the study and promotion of this method of producing electricity. In Russian Federation similar studies were carried out by I.M. Kalnina and A.S. Zhernakov who were developing heat pump salt water distiller. Modern solar energy conversion devices for the subsequent thermal electric power generation have high efficiency when operating in countries with high intensity of solar radiation, which makes them unsuitable for use in most regions of the Russian Federation. Consequently, there is a need for improving the efficiency of solar concentration and the development of more efficient conversion of thermal energy into electrical one.