The all-electric ships (AES) is becoming a leading design concept for future ship designs. It assumes using electrical energy instead of hydraulic, pneumatic, and mechanical means to power virtually all-ships subsystems including utility functions, control system, and weapon system (for military ships). The concept offers advantages of reduced overall ship weight, increased war fighting effectiveness (for military ships), reduced life cycle cost (LCC), increased reliability, provide energy recovery ability, improved survivability, maintainability, and reduced susceptibility to damage due to accidents or battles (for military ships). Hence, all electrically powered subsystems become parts of an electric power distribution system (PDS) which unites all electrical sources and loads of ships by means of a power distribution bus.
Modern electric power system consists of complex interconnected layers of components generally divided into three subsystems: generation, transmission, and distribution. This chapter covers the components that make up the modern power system. These include generators, transformers, and transmission lines. It also focuses on the transmission of electric power, how to optimize its power transfer capability, the phenomena of overvoltages, and the insulation requirement of transmission lines.
Solar power towers offer the only source of utility–scale solar electricity with cost–effective thermal energy storage. This is achieved most effectively using molten nitrate salt as the energy storage and heat transfer medium. Other options exist, e.g., liquid sodium or air with ceramic storage, but are either less developed, less efficient, or more expensive. The 10 MWe Solar Two power tower plant will illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of molten–nitrate–salt technology.
