According to the news from Harbin Boiler Co., Ltd. (referred to as “Harbin Boiler”), recently, the absorber of the West Tower of the 700,000-kilowatt “Solar Thermal Energy Storage +” project of the Three Gorges Hengji Nengmai Guazhou independently developed by Harbin Boiler successfully completed the hydraulic pressure test, with no leakage throughout the process. In addition, the absorber of the East Tower has entered the final inspection stage and is scheduled to undergo the hydraulic pressure test in May 2025. As the core equipment of the world’s first “Two-Tower One-Unit” solar thermal power plant, the successful hydraulic pressure test of this absorber marks a solid step taken by Harbin Boiler in the field of solar thermal technology.
The Three Gorges Hengji Nengmai Guazhou project is a benchmark project of the national “Desert, Gobi, and Wasteland” new energy large base. Its innovative two-tower design enables coordinated operation of the two approximately 200-meter-high absorber towers in the east and west with a heliostat field covering an area of 4,400 mu. Under the same heliostat field area, it can increase the concentrating efficiency by about 24%, thereby improving the power generation capacity. The absorber equipment specially developed by Harbin Boiler for this project adopts the independently developed high-efficiency heat absorption technology with molten salt medium, and overcomes the three major core problems of the adhesion of heat absorption coatings, modular structural design, and assembly. Among them, the selection of pipes and the corresponding structural design ensure the long-term stability of the equipment under extreme working conditions; the modular design realizes the efficient linkage between the two-tower absorber system and the energy storage device through the assembly of standardized components, providing a replicable “Chinese solution” for the construction of solar thermal power plants around the world.
During the development process, Harbin Boiler has always been guided by user needs and has strictly controlled the technical standards and delivery schedules. The absorber tube panels are the core components of the absorber. To meet the requirements for their stiffness and flatness, the design team ensures the structural strength through finite element analysis. In the production process, high-precision numerically controlled machine tools are used for processing, and multiple quality inspection procedures are carried out to ensure that the geometric accuracy of each tube panel fully meets the requirements. In terms of the welding process, Harbin Boiler has introduced semi-automatic welding equipment and a digital monitoring system. By adjusting parameters such as current and speed in real time, the quality of the weld seams is guaranteed. At the same time, a variety of flaw detection and non-destructive testing methods are used to ensure that the quality of the weld seams reaches 100% compliance, laying a solid technical foundation for the long-term safe operation of the equipment.
During the project implementation, Harbin Boiler takes efficient coordination and accurate delivery as the core and comprehensively optimizes the production management system. The design, process, production, and quality inspection departments have established a “full-process joint review” mechanism to conduct multi-dimensional verification of the key parameters of the absorber, ensuring a seamless connection between design and manufacturing. The project team maintains high-frequency communication with users. Through forms such as weekly meetings and special coordination meetings, it dynamically tracks changes in needs and adjusts the production plan synchronously. In order to meet the core indicators such as the flatness of the absorber tube panels, the production workshop adopts the “full-dimension inspection of each part of each piece” mode. Each batch of products undergoes more than three re-inspections to ensure zero-defect delivery. Through scientific resource allocation and standardized operation procedures, Harbin Boiler, while strictly controlling the quality, accurately matches the user’s delivery schedule, providing a solid guarantee for the overall progress of the project.
