Review of commercial thermal energy storage in concentrated solar power plants: Steam vs. molten salts

Thermal Energy Processes in Direct Steam Generation Solar Systems: Boiling, Condensation and Energy Storage – A Review

“…The merits and the demerits of each one were comprehensively discussed. Several architectures and thermal control mechanisms exist (González-Roubaud et al, 2017). The warmer loop typically uses thermal oils (Biencinto et al, 2014;Boukelia et al, 2015) or molten salts (Olivares, 2012;Flueckiger et al, 2013).…”

“…Steam accumulation TES is based on a concept where wet steam from the solar field is fed into a steam buffer drum, which acts as an energy storage module (González-Roubaud et al, 2017). Saturated liquid water is used as the energy storage medium while saturated steam is fed directly to a turbine, or through an additional heating section to produce superheated vapour.…”

“…Compared to sensible TES using solid media, sensible TES using liquids is relatively more mature due to its use in thermal oil and molten salt non-DSG CSP systems. Suitable storage media include binary salt mixtures using components such as NaNO 3 and KNO 3 (Bauer et al, 2013;Fernández et al, 2015;Parrado et al, 2016;González-Roubaud et al, 2017) and thermal oils. These liquids are acceptable because of their thermo-physical properties, thermal stability in their applicable temperature operating ranges, as well as their metallic corrosive properties.…”

Design and analysis of a solar tower power plant integrated with thermal energy storage system for cogeneration

“…Molten salts are treated as one of the most applicable heat storage materials, especially in solar energy–based power plants due to their low cost and high density, which has a vital importance, particularly in renewable‐based integrated systems, due to their fluctuation and instability. By utilizing thermal energy storage subsystem in a renewable energy–based power plants, electricity, hydrogen, heating and cooling, and freshwater can be produced when it is needed.…”

“…They calculated the optimum concentration ratio, ambient temperature, and time for Toronto, Canada. González‐Roubaud et al reviewed commercial TES systems used in solar power plants and also compared molten salts and steam accumulators. They conducted an economic evaluation through considering the levelized cost of electricity.…”