Design of a 100 MW concentrated solar power Linear Fresnel plant in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A comparison between molten salt and liquid sodium thermal energy storage

Abstract

The investment in renewable energies like solar power became a priority in order to protect the world from an environmental crisis caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Over the past few decades, human activities like burning fossil fuels for energy have increased greenhouse emissions to an unprecedented level which warn to increase the global average temperature up to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. Such increase in global temperature would cause massive environmental damage and affect people’s lives. Currently, around 65% of the total CO2 emissions are related to fossil fuel burning activities, thus it is necessary to find alternative sources of energy that are environmentally friendly. Renewable energy like solar power is considered one of the most reliable sources of energy as it covers a wide range of the earth’s surface and is constantly available. Several research studies focused on concentrated solar power (CSP) which revealed its high performance in producing electric power. Thus, this paper aims to study the feasibility of constructing a100 MW CSP Linear Fresnel solar power in Riyadh city to support meeting the energy demand in Saudi Arabia and reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. In this study, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) System Advisor Model (SAM) was used to design, simulate, and analyze the system. The system was designed based on CSP LF technology, and it was tested with two types of thermal fluid namely molten salt and liquid sodium to examine the potential of each fluid to generate competitive energy at a lower cost. The thermal fluids serve as heat transfer fluids (HTF) and thermal energy storage (TES), where TES supplies the power cycle with needed energy during sunset time. The system simulation shows the capability to produce enough solar power throughout the year. The model achieved a high level of energy production with a capacity factor exceeding 90% during summer for both operating fluids. It was also found that liquid sodium yields higher energy as compared to molten salt with a capacity factor exceeding 0.5–1.2%. During the summertime, it was shown that Saudi Arabia has a high potential to adopt the CSP LF technology to produce sustainable solar power.