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Pressure drops, heat transfer coefficient, costs and power block design for direct storage parabolic trough power plants running molten salts

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  • Lopes, Telma
  • Fasquelle, Thomas
  • Silva, Hugo G.

Abstract

Direct circulation of molten salts in the solar field of parabolic trough solar power plants may be a possible breakthrough to decrease their levelized cost of electricity. While prototypes are being erected around the world, this study addresses the main concerns and changes that are related to the replacement of thermal oils by molten salts, i.e. pressure drops, heat transfer coefficient, anti-freezing solutions, cost and power block design. It combines: 1) an analytical comparison of both technologies with respect to pressure drops and heat transfers; 2) simulations of a 50 MWe/7.5 h-of-storage power plant, using NREL’s SAM software, providing details on the dynamics of the outputs and parasitics. It has been observed the following: 1) pressure drops in the solar field are smaller running molten salts instead of thermal oil, thanks to higher operating temperature ranges; 2) HitecXL molten salt leads to lower electricity consumption than Therminol VP-1 oil and Solar Salt (parasitics); 3) a 6.3% reduction of the levelized cost of electricity when running HitecXL, ∼14.80 c€/kWh, instead of Therminol VP-1, ∼15.80 c€/kWh; 4) simpler power block designs can be considered for the higher operating temperatures of molten salts, resulting in higher efficiencies and/or cheaper power blocks.

Suggested Citation

  • Lopes, Telma & Fasquelle, Thomas & Silva, Hugo G., 2021. "Pressure drops, heat transfer coefficient, costs and power block design for direct storage parabolic trough power plants running molten salts," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 530-543.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:163:y:2021:i:c:p:530-543
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2020.07.110
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Baharoon, Dhyia Aidroos & Rahman, Hasimah Abdul & Omar, Wan Zaidi Wan & Fadhl, Saeed Obaid, 2015. "Historical development of concentrating solar power technologies to generate clean electricity efficiently – A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 996-1027.
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    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Shunqi & Liu, Ming & Zhao, Yongliang & Liu, Jiping & Yan, Junjie, 2021. "Dynamic simulation and performance analysis of a parabolic trough concentrated solar power plant using molten salt during the start-up process," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 1458-1471.
    2. Bouziane, Hamza & Benhamou, Brahim, 2023. "Assessment of the impact of thermal energy storage operation strategy on parabolic trough solar power plant performance," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 713-720.
    3. Shinde, Tukaram U. & Dalvi, Vishwanath H. & Patil, Ramchandra G. & Mathpati, Channamallikarjun S. & Panse, Sudhir V. & Joshi, Jyeshtharaj B., 2022. "Thermal performance analysis of novel receiver for parabolic trough solar collector," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PA).
    4. Zhang, Shunqi & Liu, Ming & Zhao, Yongliang & Liu, Jiping & Yan, Junjie, 2022. "Energy and exergy analyses of a parabolic trough concentrated solar power plant using molten salt during the start-up process," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PC).
    5. Ailton M. Tavares & Ricardo Conceição & Francisco M. Lopes & Hugo G. Silva, 2022. "Development of a Simple Methodology Using Meteorological Data to Evaluate Concentrating Solar Power Production Capacity," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-27, October.

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