Dry Cooling in Solar Thermal Power Plants

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance metrics of a solar thermal power plant with dry cooling and further implement a method to increase the cycle efficiency, using passive cooling techniques within the dry cooling cycle. Current methods implementing dry cooled condensation use an air-cooled condenser for heat rejection. While this reduces the water consumption of the plant, it results in performance penalties in the overall plant between 5–10% [1]. Passive cooling methods can be used to alleviate the performance penalties. While passive cooling methods have been studied and used on a small scale, this model explores the possibilities of applying these methods to large-scale solar thermal power plants. Based on the model developed, it was found that underground-cooling techniques can improve the performance of the overall dry cooled solar thermal power plant by up to 3% at peak dry bulb temperatures. This study finds that there is a possibility to apply these passive cooling techniques on a large scale to yield positive results.

A Review of Underground Soil and Night Sky as Passive Heat Sink: Design Configurations and Models

“…A closed loop system operating on water instead of air can also be used in areas that are far from a water source, or where power plants are prohibited from using the water due to environmental or social reasons. Goswami [61] performed the feasibility study of using EAHE in a Rankine cycle, where soil temperature was assumed to be 18 • C while the ambient air temperature was assumed to be 41 • C. They found an improved performance of the plant using ground cooling during the day compared to the solar thermal plant using air cooling only. Vidhi et al [3,4,26] performed a parametric analysis on the efficiency of the thermodynamic cycle by varying different parameters of the EAHE system.…”