IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i4p1063-d501248.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Comparison between Concentrated Solar Power and Gas-Based Generation in Terms of Economic and Flexibility-Related Aspects in Chile

Author

Listed:
  • Catalina Hernández Moris

    (Fraunhofer Chile Research Foundation, Santiago 7820436, Chile)

  • Maria Teresa Cerda Guevara

    (Fraunhofer Chile Research Foundation, Santiago 7820436, Chile)

  • Alois Salmon

    (Fraunhofer Chile Research Foundation, Santiago 7820436, Chile)

  • Alvaro Lorca

    (Department of Electrical Engineering, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, UC Energy Research Center, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago 7820436, Chile)

Abstract

The energy sector in Chile demands a significant increase in renewable energy sources in the near future, and concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies are becoming increasingly competitive as compared to natural gas plants. Motivated by this, this paper presents a comparison between solar technologies such as hybrid plants and natural gas-based thermal technologies, as both technologies share several characteristics that are comparable and beneficial for the power grid. This comparison is made from an economic point of view using the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) metric and in terms of the systemic benefits related to flexibility, which is very much required due to the current decarbonization scenario of Chile’s energy matrix. The results show that the LCOE of the four hybrid plant models studied is lower than the LCOE of the gas plant. A solar hybrid plant configuration composed of a photovoltaic and solar tower plant (STP) with 13 h of storage and without generation restrictions has an LCOE 53 USD/MWh, while the natural gas technology evaluated with an 85% plant factor and a variable fuel cost of 2.0 USD/MMBtu has an LCOE of 86 USD/MWh. Thus, solar hybrid plants under a particular set of conditions are shown to be more cost-effective than their closest competitor for the Chilean grid while still providing significant dispatchability and flexibility.

Suggested Citation

  • Catalina Hernández Moris & Maria Teresa Cerda Guevara & Alois Salmon & Alvaro Lorca, 2021. "Comparison between Concentrated Solar Power and Gas-Based Generation in Terms of Economic and Flexibility-Related Aspects in Chile," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-20, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:4:p:1063-:d:501248
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/4/1063/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/4/1063/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gabriel Diaz, Francisco D. Munoz, and Rodrigo Moreno, 2020. "Equilibrium Analysis of a Tax on Carbon Emissions with Pass-through Restrictions and Side-payment Rules," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 93-122.
    2. Behar, Omar & Khellaf, Abdallah & Mohammedi, Kamal, 2013. "A review of studies on central receiver solar thermal power plants," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 12-39.
    3. Castillejo-Cuberos, Armando & Escobar, Rodrigo, 2020. "Understanding solar resource variability: An in-depth analysis, using Chile as a case of study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    4. Parrado, C. & Marzo, A. & Fuentealba, E. & Fernández, A.G., 2016. "2050 LCOE improvement using new molten salts for thermal energy storage in CSP plants," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 505-514.
    5. Xu, Xinhai & Vignarooban, K. & Xu, Ben & Hsu, K. & Kannan, A.M., 2016. "Prospects and problems of concentrating solar power technologies for power generation in the desert regions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1106-1131.
    6. Islam, Md Tasbirul & Huda, Nazmul & Abdullah, A.B. & Saidur, R., 2018. "A comprehensive review of state-of-the-art concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies: Current status and research trends," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 987-1018.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zurita, Adriana & Mata-Torres, Carlos & Cardemil, José M. & Guédez, Rafael & Escobar, Rodrigo A., 2021. "Multi-objective optimal design of solar power plants with storage systems according to dispatch strategy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    2. Memme, Samuele & Fossa, Marco, 2024. "A novel approach for incidence angle modifier calculation of arbitrarily oriented linear Fresnel collectors: Theory, simulations and case studies," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    3. David Borge-Diez & Enrique Rosales-Asensio & Ana I. Palmero-Marrero & Emin Acikkalp, 2022. "Optimization of CSP Plants with Thermal Energy Storage for Electricity Price Stability in Spot Markets," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-25, February.
    4. Memme, Samuele & Fossa, Marco, 2023. "Ray tracing analysis of linear Fresnel concentrators and the effect of plant azimuth on their optical efficiency," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    5. Norambuena-Guzmán, Valentina & Palma-Behnke, Rodrigo & Hernández-Moris, Catalina & Cerda, Maria Teresa & Flores-Quiroz, Ángela, 2024. "Towards CSP technology modeling in power system expansion planning," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 364(C).
    6. Andreas Rosenstiel & Nathalie Monnerie & Jürgen Dersch & Martin Roeb & Robert Pitz-Paal & Christian Sattler, 2021. "Electrochemical Hydrogen Production Powered by PV/CSP Hybrid Power Plants: A Modelling Approach for Cost Optimal System Design," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-22, June.
    7. Arias, I. & Cardemil, J. & Zarza, E. & Valenzuela, L. & Escobar, R., 2022. "Latest developments, assessments and research trends for next generation of concentrated solar power plants using liquid heat transfer fluids," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tarun Kumar Aseri & Chandan Sharma & Tara C. Kandpal, 2022. "Condenser cooling technologies for concentrating solar power plants: a review," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 4511-4565, April.
    2. Delise, T. & Tizzoni, A.C. & Menale, C. & Telling, M.T.F. & Bubbico, R. & Crescenzi, T. & Corsaro, N. & Sau, S. & Licoccia, S., 2020. "Technical and economic analysis of a CSP plant presenting a low freezing ternary mixture as storage and transfer fluid," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    3. Gutiérrez-Alvarez, R. & Guerra, K. & Haro, P., 2023. "Market profitability of CSP-biomass hybrid power plants: Towards a firm supply of renewable energy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 335(C).
    4. Arias, I. & Cardemil, J. & Zarza, E. & Valenzuela, L. & Escobar, R., 2022. "Latest developments, assessments and research trends for next generation of concentrated solar power plants using liquid heat transfer fluids," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    5. Islam, Md Tasbirul & Huda, Nazmul & Abdullah, A.B. & Saidur, R., 2018. "A comprehensive review of state-of-the-art concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies: Current status and research trends," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 987-1018.
    6. Li Wang & Long Yang & Junjie Liu & Pei Wang, 2021. "Study on Spectral Radiative Heat Transfer Characteristics of a Windowed Receiver with Particle Curtain," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-16, May.
    7. Starke, Allan R. & Cardemil, José M. & Bonini, Vinicius R.B. & Escobar, Rodrigo & Castro-Quijada, Matías & Videla, Álvaro, 2024. "Assessing the performance of novel molten salt mixtures on CSP applications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 359(C).
    8. Soria, Rafael & Lucena, André F.P. & Tomaschek, Jan & Fichter, Tobias & Haasz, Thomas & Szklo, Alexandre & Schaeffer, Roberto & Rochedo, Pedro & Fahl, Ulrich & Kern, Jürgen, 2016. "Modelling concentrated solar power (CSP) in the Brazilian energy system: A soft-linked model coupling approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 116(P1), pages 265-280.
    9. Tiwari, Vivek & Rai, Aakash C. & Srinivasan, P., 2021. "Parametric analysis and optimization of a latent heat thermal energy storage system for concentrated solar power plants under realistic operating conditions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 305-319.
    10. Villada, Carolina & Bonk, Alexander & Bauer, Thomas & Bolívar, Francisco, 2018. "High-temperature stability of nitrate/nitrite molten salt mixtures under different atmospheres," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 107-115.
    11. Merchán, R.P. & Santos, M.J. & Heras, I. & Gonzalez-Ayala, J. & Medina, A. & Hernández, A. Calvo, 2020. "On-design pre-optimization and off-design analysis of hybrid Brayton thermosolar tower power plants for different fluids and plant configurations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    12. Miguel Ángel Reyes-Belmonte, 2020. "A Bibliometric Study on Integrated Solar Combined Cycles (ISCC), Trends and Future Based on Data Analytics Tools," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-29, October.
    13. Kunniyoor, Vijayaraj & Singh, Punit & Nadella, Karthik, 2020. "Value of closed-cycle gas turbines with design assessment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    14. Mohammadi, Kasra & Khanmohammadi, Saber & Khorasanizadeh, Hossein & Powell, Kody, 2020. "A comprehensive review of solar only and hybrid solar driven multigeneration systems: Classifications, benefits, design and prospective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    15. Avila-Marin, A.L. & Fernandez-Reche, J. & Martinez-Tarifa, A., 2019. "Modelling strategies for porous structures as solar receivers in central receiver systems: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 15-33.
    16. Belgasim, Basim & Aldali, Yasser & Abdunnabi, Mohammad J.R. & Hashem, Gamal & Hossin, Khaled, 2018. "The potential of concentrating solar power (CSP) for electricity generation in Libya," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 1-15.
    17. Ortiz, C. & Valverde, J.M. & Chacartegui, R. & Perez-Maqueda, L.A. & Giménez, P., 2019. "The Calcium-Looping (CaCO3/CaO) process for thermochemical energy storage in Concentrating Solar Power plants," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-1.
    18. José M. Cardemil & Allan R. Starke & Adriana Zurita & Carlos Mata‐Torres & Rodrigo Escobar, 2021. "Integration schemes for hybrid and polygeneration concentrated solar power plants," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(6), November.
    19. Jiang, Kaijun & Du, Xiaoze & Zhang, Qiang & Kong, Yanqiang & Xu, Chao & Ju, Xing, 2021. "Review on gas-solid fluidized bed particle solar receivers applied in concentrated solar applications: Materials, configurations and methodologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    20. Merchán, R.P. & Santos, M.J. & Medina, A. & Calvo Hernández, A., 2022. "High temperature central tower plants for concentrated solar power: 2021 overview," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:4:p:1063-:d:501248. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.