Cooling systems in thermal power stations

[Gruxg]

I thought any type of thermal power sation required a powerful cooling system and therefore had to be located near a large water mass (river, sea) or have big cooling towers: I have seen this in nuclear, gas or biomass stations. However, I haven't seen it in concentrated solar power stations despite they use steam turbines like any other termal station (if I am not mistaken). Once the heat is produced by any means, I suppose the thermodynamics should not be very different: why (thermal) solar stations do not need such big cooling towers nor large water supply like the other stations?

 

[jedishrfu]

Interesting question, I found these references that may answer it:

https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/articles/novel-dry-cooling-technology-power-plants

https://www.azocleantech.com/news.aspx?newsID=31739

 

[gmax137]

Normally, steam engine power plants utilize the water-intensive wet cooling technique to disperse the waste heat that has been generated. But such processes have the ability to lose huge amounts of water as a result of the evaporation and, thus demand a constant water supply.

This poses a severe threat as the majority of the CSP plants are set up in hot and dry regions with restricted water resources.

I don't think I say "severe threat," rather, "design constraint."