Abstract
While there is a consensus that concentrated solar power solar tower plants with thermal energy storage 10 hours may permit the production of dispatchable electricity at 6 c/kWh, without a single plant utility size produced and operated featuring this technology at this cost, the recent experience of Crescent Dunes has clearly shown that this is not the case. Crescent Dunes started operation in October 2015 demonstrating since the very beginning the lack of maturity of this specific technology, with lack of production or no production at all, every single month since then. As the 110 MW plant of cost about 1 billion $ US has been shut down after less than 4 years of operation, and a total production of only 418, 849 MWh, that is less than the 500, 000 MWh expected every year for 25 years, this translate in a total cost, excluding repairs and maintenance costs incurred in the 4 years, of 2.38 $ per kWh of unpredictable electricity. This experience suggests that every estimation of costs and performances should be based on data of plants built and operated, and to avoid the use of models not yet validated to predict performances of novel plants. There is a mature solar thermal technology, and this is the parabolic trough.
Highlights
NREL [1] suggests as the best option presently available for Concentrated Solar Power the Solar Tower technology with 10 hours of two tanks thermal energy storage by molten salt
It was commissioned in 2015 with a reported installed CAPEX of 8.96 c US$/kW. They forget to mention that Crescent Dunes was the first and only plant utility size of this kind built in the world and that Crescent Dunes never operated as expected during the lifetime, with many months without production, and annual production well below 25% of the expected, every year since commissioning, for a delivered capacity factor of 13% vs. an expected capacity factor of 52%
We use the SAM model [10] to compute the performance of a concentrated solar power solar tower plant of characteristics similar to Crescent Dunes located in Tonopah, NV
Summary
NREL [1] suggests as the best option presently available for Concentrated Solar Power the Solar Tower technology with 10 hours of two tanks thermal energy storage by molten salt. They candidly state that Crescent Dunes was the first large molten-salt power tower plant in the United States. It was commissioned in 2015 with a reported installed CAPEX of 8.96 c US$/kW They forget to mention that Crescent Dunes was the first and only plant utility size of this kind built in the world and that Crescent Dunes never operated as expected during the lifetime, with many months without production, and annual production well below 25% of the expected, every year since commissioning, for a delivered capacity factor of 13% vs an expected capacity factor of 52%. The capacity factor is the ratio of actual generating power
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
