Abstract
Concentrating solar power is an important technological option to gradually increase the share of energy produced by renewable energy sources. Central power towers and parabolic trough collectors, are currently the most mature technologies globally installed. While the former technology requires less land area to produce the same power output, the latter operates at lower temperatures thereby requiring less demanding materials. In this paper, we investigate by dynamic modeling the potential of both technologies in the same plant configuration. We find more stable day-to-day annual power profile for a configuration of a 29 MWe tower and 25 MWe of north–south oriented parabolic trough collectors compared to single technology plants. This results in a higher maximum capacity factor of 18% at 925 W/m2 direct normal irradiance and discounted payback of 9 years at a cost of electricity of 248 Euro/MWh compared to a standalone plant based on parabolic trough technology. In this way, the advantages of both concentrating technologies can be utilized and aid towards wider utilization of solar energy.
Published Version
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