Methodology for sizing the solar field for parabolic trough technology with thermal storage and hybridization

Suresh, Nalina; Thirumalai, N.C.; Rao, Badri S.; Ramaswamy, MA

doi:10.1016/j.solener.2014.09.020

Cited by 42 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Suresh et al (2014) proposed a methodology to determine the thermodynamically optimal solar field size, for PTC-based plants with hybridization Sharma et al (2016).…”

Section: Design Radiation and Solar Field Sizementioning

confidence: 99%

Line-focusing concentrating solar collector-based power plants: a review

Desai

Bandyopadhyay

2016

Clean Techn Environ Policy

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Concentrated solar power (CSP) plant is an emerging technology among different renewable energy sources. Parabolic trough collector (PTC)-based CSP plant, using synthetic or organic oil as a heat-transfer fluid, is the most advanced technology. About 87 % of the operational capacities of CSP plants worldwide are based on PTC technology. Direct steam-generating linear Fresnel reflector (LFR) systems have been developed as a cost-effective alternative to PTC systems. Line-focusing concentrating solar collectors (PTC and LFR), with single-axis tracking, are simple in design and easy to operate. Prior to the detailed design of a CSP plant, it is necessary to finalize type of the solar field, type of the power-generating cycle, overall plant configuration, sizing of the solar field and the power block, etc. The optimal design of a CSP plant minimizes the levelized cost of energy for a given site. In this paper, a detailed review of important design parameters which affect the design of line-focusing concentrating solar collector-based power plants is presented. This includes parameters for solar collector field design, receiver, heat-transfer fluid, thermal energy storage, powergenerating cycle, sizing and configuration of the plant, etc. This review may provide a reference for designing CSP plants. Future research directions are also identified.

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“…Suresh et al (2014) proposed a methodology to determine the thermodynamically optimal solar field size, for PTC-based plants with hybridization Sharma et al (2016).…”

Section: Design Radiation and Solar Field Sizementioning

confidence: 99%

Line-focusing concentrating solar collector-based power plants: a review

Desai

Bandyopadhyay

2016

Clean Techn Environ Policy

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“…A significant complication of concentrated solar plants is the temporal variance of solar irradiation throughout the day . This mismatch in solar energy supply and the electricity demand can be mitigated by either backup system that may include conventional burning of fossil fuel or thermal energy storage (TES) system …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermodynamic analysis of an underground sensible energy storage system

2019

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Electricity production from concentrated solar power (CSP) plants has been more commonplace in the last decade since the sun is one of the most abundant, renewable energy sources. The heat transfer fluid temperature in a CSP plant may go up to 1000 C; however, most of the current power plants operate on temperature ranges between 220 C and 565 C due to decomposition of molten salts in high temperatures. Since the sun is not available at nights and cloudy days, an important consideration is how to store the energy received by the sun to use at other times. In this study, a three-dimensional borehole heat exchanger model is developed to store solar energy underground using concrete and molten salt as a storage medium and heat transfer fluid, respectively.While molten salt is circulating through a pipe, which is placed into the concrete, heat is transferred from the molten salt to the concrete or vice versa during the charging and discharging processes. Numerous simulations are conducted using ANSYS Fluent, with varying borehole diameters, mass flow rates, and thermal resistances of the borehole wall. Average concrete temperature, outlet heat transfer fluid temperature, and energy and exergy efficiencies are investigated for each case. It was found here that while concrete temperature increases with increasing mass flow rate, the increasing trend is minimal after the mass flow rate increases beyond 6 kg/s. There exists a negative relation between the borehole diameter and average concrete temperature during the charging process, and vice versa in discharging. Energy and exergy efficiencies varied from 0.2% to 98.1% and 0.1% to 77.9%, respectively. While the most efficient system was found at a borehole diameter of 550 mm for adiabatic cases, it was found to be 750 mm when heat leakage is taken into consideration. Borehole diameters of 2000 mm performed the worst among all cases due to low heat transfer rates. Heat leakage was found to have a significant impact on energy and exergy efficiencies, especially in energy efficiencies for higher borehole diameters and low mass flow rates in the discharging process.

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“…However, the present literature lacks an overall methodology to model a complete ST plant from scratch (with given inputs such as hourly Direct Normal Irradiation (DNI) data at the plant location, capacity, thermal storage hours, gross efficiencies, etc.) as was done for the Parabolic Trough (PT) technology [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary design of heliostat field and performance analysis of solar tower plants with thermal storage and hybridisation

Gopalakrishnan

Suresh

Thirumalai

et al. 2017

Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments

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Solar tower technology has gained considerable momentum over the past decade. In a solar tower plant, a single receiver is used and the power collected by the heliostat field is strongly coupled to the tower height and its location with respect to the field. The literature available focuses largely on the component-level details of the heliostat field, ray-tracing mechanisms, receiver heat transfer analyses, etc. However, there is no systematic method to determine the preliminary optimum tower height and solar field together with an estimation of a solar tower plant's technical performance. The present paper provides a methodology to estimate the design performance of a tower plant (with storage and hybridisation) using an external cylindrical receiver. The methodology is validated with the Gemasolar plant in Spain and the Crescent Dunes plant in the United States of America. The optimum efficiency is 16% for the Gemasolar plant (20 MW and 15 hours of storage) and 18.3% for the Crescent Dunes plant (110 MW and 10 hours of storage). Further, the methodology is applied to hypothetical plants in Jodhpur as a case study and the results are analysed. The trends seen are similar to that observed for parabolic trough plants.

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Methodology for sizing the solar field for parabolic trough technology with thermal storage and hybridization

Cited by 42 publications

References 22 publications

Line-focusing concentrating solar collector-based power plants: a review

Line-focusing concentrating solar collector-based power plants: a review

Thermodynamic analysis of an underground sensible energy storage system

Preliminary design of heliostat field and performance analysis of solar tower plants with thermal storage and hybridisation

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