Despite the big deployment of concentrating solar power (CSP) plants, their environmental evaluation is still a pending issue. In this paper, a detailed life cycle assessment (LCA) of a CSP tower plant with molten salts storage in a baseload configuration is carried out and compared with a reference CSP plant without storage. Results show that the plant with storage has a lower environmental impact due to the lower operational impact. The dependence on grid electricity in a CSP tower plant without storage increases its operation stage impact. The impact of the manufacturing and disposal stage is similar in both plants. When analyzed in detail, the solar field system and the thermal energy storage (TES) and heat transfer fluid (HTF) systems are the ones with higher impact. Within the storage system, the molten salts are those with higher impact. Therefore, in this study the impact of the origin of the salts is evaluated, showing that when the salts come from mines their impact is lower than when they are synthetized. Results show that storage is a key element for CSP plants not only to ensure dispatchability but also to reduce their environmental impact.
The tanning industry is one of the highly polluting sectors, and it is only in the last few years that studies on the energy improvement of tanneries started to proliferate in the literature. Even though the energy cost of a tannery is only a small fraction of the total cost, many tanners became aware of the importance of improving energy efficiency and reducing the environmental footprint to keep the business afloat and be more competitive in the market. This paper presents a study on increasing the sustainability of a tannery located in the region of Catalonia, Spain. Several measures to increase its energy efficiency and reduce its primary energy consumption were proposed and analysed including, among others, the implementation of solar thermal collectors and photovoltaic panels. A cost analysis of the most promising solutions was carried out and discussed. The results show that the tannery should invest between EUR 2 to 2.5 M to obtain the highest energy savings, with an estimated payback period between 5 and 7 years. However, acceptable energy savings can be obtained with a lower investment cost of between EUR 1 to 1.5 M, with a shorter payback period of between 2 and 4 years.
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