Simulation of a solar power plant with parabolic receivers in several parts of Iran in the presence of latent heat thermal energy storage system

Abstract

In this research, the transient state of a solar power plant with a parabolic receiver in several parts of Iran (6 cities) with the effect of adding a latent heat storage system is investigated. For this purpose, first, the performance of the solar power plant will be evaluated by TRNSYS simulation software and then a latent heat storage system will be added to it. Accordingly, the three types of phase change materials (PCMs) including H250, NaNO3 and KNO3 were investigated. The results show that the performance of the latent heat storage system is highly dependent on the type of phase change material (PCM) and its type should be selected according to the power plant conditions. The addition of a solar heat storage system reduced the amount of heat required in the boiler overnight at the plant. The latent heat storage system performed best by selecting NaNO3 as the phase change agent (PCM). In addition, the effect of different climates studied in six cities of Mashhad, Tabriz, Shiraz, Kerman, Zahedan and Tehran shows that Zahedan has a more suitable location than other cities and solar fraction and power plant efficiency are higher in this city. The annual solar fraction in this power plant was about 68.9%. Further, it was determined that by using the north-south tracking system, more energy can be absorbed in the collectors and using this system will reduce the angle of impact on the collector.