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Impacts of solar multiple on the performance of direct steam generation solar power tower plant with integrated thermal storage

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Abstract

Solar multiple (SM) and thermal storage capacity are two key design parameters for revealing the performance of direct steam generation (DSG) solar power tower plant. In the case of settled land area, SM and thermal storage capacity can be optimized to obtain the minimum levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) by adjusting the power generation output. Taking the dual-receiver DSG solar power tower plant with a given size of solar field equivalent electricity of 100 MWe in Sevilla as a reference case, the minimum LCOE is 21.77¢/kWhe with an SM of 1.7 and a thermal storage capacity of 3 h. Besides Sevilla, two other sites are also introduced to discuss the influence of annual DNI. When compared with the case of Sevilla, the minimum LCOE and optimal SM of the San Jose site change just slightly, while the minimum LCOE of the Bishop site decreases by 32.8% and the optimal SM is reduced to 1.3. The influence of the size of solar field equivalent electricity is studied as well. The minimum LCOE decreases with the size of solar field, while the optimal SM and thermal storage capacity still remain unchanged. In addition, the sensitivity of different investment in sub-system is investigated. In terms of optimal SM and thermal storage capacity, they can decrease with the cost of thermal storage system but increase with the cost of power generation unit.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51676069), the 111 Project (B12034), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2016XS30).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Energy, Power and Mechanical Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, 102206, China

    Yan Luo, Xiaoze Du, Lijun Yang, Chao Xu & Muhammad Amjad

  2. School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Beijing, 100029, China

    Yan Luo

  3. School of Chemical and Process Engineering, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    Muhammad Amjad

Authors
  1. Yan Luo
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  2. Xiaoze Du
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  3. Lijun Yang
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  4. Chao Xu
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  5. Muhammad Amjad
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Correspondence to Chao Xu.

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Luo, Y., Du, X., Yang, L. et al. Impacts of solar multiple on the performance of direct steam generation solar power tower plant with integrated thermal storage. Front. Energy 11, 461–471 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-017-0503-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-017-0503-5

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