Abstract
This paper provides an assessment of the expected Levelised Cost of Electricity enabled by Concentrated Solar Power plants based on Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (sCO 2 ) technology. A global approach is presented, relying on previous results by the authors in order to ascertain whether these innovative power cycles have the potential to achieve the very low costs of electricity reported in the literature. From a previous thermodynamic analysis of sCO 2 cycles, three layouts are shortlisted and their installation costs are compared prior to assessing the corresponding cost of electricity. Amongst them, the Transcritical layout is then discarded due to the virtually impossible implementation in locations with high ambient temperature. The remaining layouts, Allam and Partial Cooling are then modelled and their Levelised Cost of Electricity is calculated for a number of cases and two different locations in North America. Each case is characterised by a different dispatch control scheme and set of financial assumptions. A Concentrated Solar Power plant based on steam turbine technology is also added to the assessment for the sake of comparison. The analysis yields electricity costs varying in the range from 8 to over 11 ¢/kWh, which is near but definitely not below the 6 ¢/kWh target set forth by different administrations. Nevertheless, in spite of the results, a review of the conservative assumptions adopted in the analysis suggests that attaining costs substantially lower than this is very likely. In other words, the results presented in this paper can be taken as an upper limit of the economic performance attainable by Supercritical Carbon Dioxide in Concentrated Solar Power applications.
Highlights
This paper is focused on the assessment of the Levelised Costs of Electricity that should be expected if supercritical CO2 power cycles were adopted in generation Concentrated Solar Power plants for Solar Thermal Electricity generation
A simulation platform developed by the authors for the techno-economic analysis of Concentrated Solar Power plants has been integrated with the
Plants based on steam turbine technology and on sCO2 cycles have been analysed under different financial/economic boundary conditions and for two different locations which can be regarded as above-average for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) installations
Summary
Dioxide cycles in Concentrated Solar Power applications, a new reference is needed to understand whether or not the SCARABEUS technology will eventually yield lower Levelised Cost of Electricity than standard sCO2 power cycles This encapsulates the twofold objective of the present work, in brief:. With all the information described above, this paper constitutes the last step in this research, leading to the original objective of estimating the Levelised Cost of Electricity f CSP-sCO2 power plants As said before, this is the Key Performance Indicator needed to assess whether or not standard sCO2 cycles or the new SCARABEUS concept will enable meeting the ambitious LCoE objective set forth by the SunShot programme. This applies to the entire process, from literature review to LCoE calculation
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