Abstract
China intends to develop its renewable energy sector in order to cut down on its pollution levels. Concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies are expected to play a key role in this agenda. This study evaluated the technical and economic performance of a 100 MW solar tower CSP in Tibet, China, under different heat transfer fluids (HTF), i.e., Salt (60% NaNO3 40% KNO3) or HTF A, and Salt (46.5% LiF 11.5% NaF 42% KF) or HTF B under two different power cycles, namely supercritical CO2 and Rankine. Results from the study suggest that the Rankine power cycle with HTF A and B recorded capacity factors (CF) of 39% and 40.3%, respectively. The sCO2 power cycle also recorded CFs of 41% and 39.4% for HTF A and HTF B, respectively. A total of 359 GWh of energy was generated by the sCO2 system with HTF B, whereas the sCO2 system with HTF A generated a total of 345 GWh in the first year. The Rankine system with HTF A generated a total of 341 GWh, while the system with B as its HTF produced a total of 353 GWh of electricity in year one. Electricity to grid mainly occurred between 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. throughout the year. According to the results, the highest levelized cost of energy (LCOE) (real) of 0.1668 USD/kWh was recorded under the Rankine cycle with HTF A. The lowest LCOE (real) of 0.1586 USD/kWh was obtained under the sCO2 cycle with HTF B. In general, all scenarios were economically viable at the study area; however, the sCO2 proved to be more economically feasible according to the simulated results.
Highlights
The results from the simulation of the four different scenarios considered in this study are presented
Data from the analysis indicate that the optimum full load hours for the thermal energy storage (TES) is 6 h since under all scenarios for the different heat transfer fluids (HTF) and power cycles, the lowest levelized cost of energy (LCOE) was recorded under that condition
A total of 359 GWh of energy was generated by the sCO2 system with HTF B, whereas the sCO2 system with HTF A generated a total of 345 GWh in the first year
Summary
One key thing in the lives of humans is energy, and if countries are to see the necessary socio-economic development they seek, obtaining sufficient, accessible, cost-effective, and secure energy is vital. The world’s energy demand keeps increasing and is projected to continue into the future as a result of increasing population, industrialization, and changing lifestyles, among other factors [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. Renewable energy (RE) has in the past decades gained much attraction among industry players and other stakeholders due to the numerous advantages associated with its use. The use of solar energy resources for electricity generation has seen an increase in recent times due to the declining cost of its components [8].
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