A novel means to flexibly operate a hybrid concentrated solar power plant and improve operation during non-ideal direct normal irradiation conditions

Ellingwood, Kevin; Mohammadi, Kasra; Powell, Kody M.

doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2019.112275

Cited by 28 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Nowadays, the increasing energy consumption worldwide, the higher price of fossil fuels and the environmental impacts of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission stimulate the use of renewable resources as the alternative [Nicolas et al, 2019]. Solar energy conversion by Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technology has a great potential within the future energy scenario because the integrated thermal energy storage (TES) systems can largely enhance the reliability and the dispatchability, allowing the production of electricity on demand [Ellingwood et al, 2020;Pelay et al, 2019;Zhang et al, 2016]. About half of the CSP plants currently in operation includes a TES system while this percentage rises up to more than 80% for those planned and under construction [Pelay et al, 2017].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single-tank thermal energy storage systems for concentrated solar power: Flow distribution optimization for thermocline evolution management

Lou

Fan

Luo

2020

Journal of Energy Storage

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Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technology captures solar radiation and converts it into heat for electricity production. It has received an increasing attention because integrated thermal energy storage (TES) systems can largely enhancing the reliability and the dispatchability. Over the last decade, low-cost single storage tank based on the thermocline technology becomes an alternative to commonly-used two-tank TES system. However, the improper inlet/outlet manifolds may cause the strong mixing of hot and cold fluids and disturb the temperature stratification, resulting in reduced thermal performances of the storage tank. This study aims at solving the flow maldistribution problem in the single-tank thermocline storage system by appropriately structuring the inlet/outlet manifolds. The technical solution is based on the insertion of optimized perforated baffles in the manifolds. 2D Computational fluid dynamics simulations were performed to calculate the transient flow and temperature profiles in the storage tank during the charging and discharging operations. The optimal size distribution of orifices on the upper baffle has been determined for homogenizing passage times of the thermal front, so as to enhance the temperature stratification. A novel intermediate evaluation indicator was introduced to characterize the real-time thermal behavior, which could reduce the computational cost of the optimization problem by a factor of 6 at least. Numerical results shown that the proposed optimization algorithm could significantly improve the thermal performances, indicated by the increased values of charging/discharging efficiency, the capacity ratio and the overall efficiency, ex., the fully charging efficiency be increased by 29% by comparing the unstructured manifold geometry and the one with optimized baffles. The parametric study on certain geometry and operating factors also demonstrated that the proposed method for flow distribution optimization was robust, effective and efficient.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single-tank thermal energy storage systems for concentrated solar power: Flow distribution optimization for thermocline evolution management

Lou

Fan

Luo

2020

Journal of Energy Storage

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“…Hybridization of natural gas with solar energy has also been studied for a Solar Power Tower system. Ellingwood et al showed the improvement in solar energy utilization achieved with hybridization and FHI (Ellingwood et al, 2020b) for a Solar Power Tower system including energy storage. In this study, the operation of the solar thermal plant was based on heuristic control.…”

Section: Drto Schemesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis and future perspectives for the application of Dynamic Real-Time Optimization to solar thermal plants: A review

et al. 2022

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“…In particular, concentrated solar power (CSP) plants not only have the potential to be integrated into the grid for dispatching power generation [4,5], but have also seen a significant increase in deployment worldwide in recent years [6,7]. However, power production is unstable in the CSP plants due to the intermittent and inconsistent solar energy, which cannot reliably transmit energy to the grid [8,9]. Owing to this, heat storage has become worthy of attention and research that is obligatory, affordable, and efficient [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of Thermochemical Heat Storage Based on CaO/CaCO3 Cycles: A Review

Yang

Yan

et al. 2021

Energies

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Due to the inconsistency and intermittence of solar energy, concentrated solar power (CSP) cannot stably transmit energy to the grid. Heat storage can maximize the availability of CSP plants. Especially, thermochemical heat storage (TCHS) based on CaO/CaCO3 cycles has broad application prospects due to many advantages, such as high heat storage density, high exothermic temperature, low energy loss, low material price, and good coupling with CSP plants. This paper provided a comprehensive outlook on the integrated system of CaO/CaCO3 heat storage, advanced reactor design, heat storage conditions, as well as the performance of CaO-based materials. The challenges and opportunities faced by current research were discussed, and suggestions for future research and development directions of CaO/CaCO3 heat storage were briefly put forward.

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A novel means to flexibly operate a hybrid concentrated solar power plant and improve operation during non-ideal direct normal irradiation conditions

Cited by 28 publications

References 31 publications

Single-tank thermal energy storage systems for concentrated solar power: Flow distribution optimization for thermocline evolution management

Single-tank thermal energy storage systems for concentrated solar power: Flow distribution optimization for thermocline evolution management

Analysis and future perspectives for the application of Dynamic Real-Time Optimization to solar thermal plants: A review

Development of Thermochemical Heat Storage Based on CaO/CaCO3 Cycles: A Review

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