Life cycle assessment of typical tower solar thermal power station in China

In light of the growing environmental awareness and the sustainable development consideration in energy policies, the environmental impacts of concentrating solar power (CSP) have attracted significant attention. Considering that the site selection of CSP stations and databases used for evaluation has an important impact on the environment, the objective of this study is to assess the impact of concentrating solar power tower (CSP-T) station with thermal storage devices in the geographical context of China from environmental perspective by the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. To achieve this goal and ensure the reliability of the research results, a 2 × 50 MW capacity, double tank solar nitrate energy storage, and 12-h energy storage time CSP-T station in Dunhuang, Gansu, was selected. In addition, its model was constructed using the eFootprint online platform, assessing the environmental impacts of the CSP-T station according to the cradle-to-grave system boundary. Moreover, the impact assessment was performed in terms of key metrics, such as energy payback time (EPT), carbon cost of electricity (CCOE), carbon flow analysis, and environmental benefits of energy conservation and emission reduction. The results showed that the production stage is the most significant source of environmental impact in the life cycle of the CSP-T station, with the condensing system and heat storage system contributing 50.17 % and 47.64 % respectively. It can be found that the EPT of the CSP-T station is estimated at 4.88 years, accounting for 16.25 % of the operation cycle of the thermal power station, and varies depending on the station's location. It can be reduced to 3.19 years in places such as North Africa with abundant light intensity. Furthermore, the CCOE of the CSP-T station is 0.04 kg CO2/kWh. Overall, CSP-T station has over 95 % environmental benefits for energy conservation and emission reduction for most indices compared to thermal power station. Although the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) index is slightly lower, it still reaches 82.67 %. To promote the ecological development of the CSP-T station in China, this study usually includes a brief comment or relevant improvement recommendations after each comparative analysis.