Solar gas turbine systems: Design, cost and perspectives

Abstract

The combination of high solar shares with high conversion efficiencies is one of the major advantages of solar gas turbine systems compared to other solar-fossil hybrid power plants. Pressurized air receivers are used in solar tower plants to heat the compressed air in the gas turbine to temperatures up to 1000°C. Therefore solar shares in the design case of 40% up to 90% can be realized and annual solar shares up to 30% can be achieved in base load. Using modern gas turbine systems in recuperation or combined cycle mode leads to conversion efficiencies of the solar heat from around 40% up to more than 50%. This is an important step towards cost reduction of solar thermal power. Together with the advantages of hybrid power plants-variable solar share, fully dispatchable power, 24 h operation without storage-solar gas turbine systems are expected to have a high potential for market introduction in the mid term view. In this paper the design and performance assessment of several prototype plants in the power levels of 1 MW, 5 MW and 15 MW are presented. Advanced software tools are used for design optimization and performance prediction of the solar tower gas turbine power plants. Detailed cost assumptions for the solarized gas turbine, the solar tower plant and further equipment as well as for operation and maintenance are presented. Intensive performance and economic analysis of the prototype plants for different locations and capacity factors are shown. The cost reduction potential through automation and remote operation is revealed.

Integrated Solar Combined Cycle Power Plants: Paving the way for thermal solar

“…The CSP energy is used to either produce additional steam that is integrated in the NGCC's steam turbine to generate electricity [8], or to heat the compressed air in the gas turbine before entering the combustion chamber [16].…”

“…the solar multiple) in daily operation, annual performance, and economy of a DSG parabolic trough plant. Schwarzbözl et al [16] introduced and evaluated a system where solar tower plants use pressurized air receivers to heat the compressed air in a gas turbine. The system achieves an annual average solar to net electric efficiency of up to 19% which is amongst the highest conversion efficiencies for solar electric technologies.…”

An economic analysis of solar hybrid steam injected gas turbine (STIG) plant for Indian conditions

“…But between the injection cases, water injection into the combustor is preferable choice that has 7.1 years as capital payback period, the least energy production cost (0.054 $/kWh) and (À89.8 $) disadvantage (decrease in net incomes) respect to dry operation in compare to steam injection into combustor and recuperator. Peter Schwarzbozl et al [8] presented the performance and economic analysis of the solar hybrid gas turbine (1.4 MW e , 4.2 MW e and 16.1 MW e ) plants for two different locations and capacity factors. It was found that the total levelized electricity cost for stand-alone plant ranges from about 6.3 Vcent/kWh to 19.9 Vcent/kWh depending on power level and solar share.…”

Thermoeconomic Evaluation of Integrated Solar Combined Cycle Systems (ISCCS)

“…The integrating of solar energy with conventional power plants or other power systems is an effective way to utilize solar energy and achieve fuel savings for power plant [5]. A higher solar efficiency can be obtained with solar-aided power generation (SAPG) than with solar only ones [6], and hybrid plants can use smaller solar fields, hence reducing the investment costs [7,8]. Typical values of energetic efficiency and land area for different types of parabolic trough solar-only plants can be found in [9].…”