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A Concept For Future Parabolic Trough Based Solar Thermal Power Plants PDF
A Concept For Future Parabolic Trough Based Solar Thermal Power Plants PDF
A Concept for Future Parabolic Trough Based Solar Thermal Power Plants
After periods of stagnancy, the production of electricity from Concentrating Solar Power (CSP)
currently takes a clear turn towards technology improvement and market penetration. Already in
the 80’s a total plant capacity of 354 MWel has been installed in California’s Mojave Desert,
which has been successfully operated until today. Only broad subsidies as granted first of all by
the Spanish government or legal obligations initiated a recent boom in project development, and,
in the meantime, various plants are in erection phase or already in operation. They are mostly
based on parabolic trough collector technology with indirect steam generation. As one
alternative the direct steam generation is discussed, which has already been proven in a
demonstration loop on the Plataforma Solar de Almería in more than 6000 operating hours. In
the paper a brief overview over the current status of the direct steam generation is given and a
basic plant layout for a 50 MWel direct steam generating parabolic trough plant with a 6 h
thermal storage system is analyzed.
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holds for discharging, where the same temperature pressure is maintained which allows solar field
difference is needed to get the heat out of the operation and storage discharge in parallel.
storage material. Due to this physical boundary
conditions the driving temperature gradients needed Power block layout
for each thermal storage system automatically cause
a corresponding pressure gradient between charge The design of the Rankine cycle is based on a
and discharge operation (Figure 3). For the generic turbine model of the Siemens SST-700
preheating and the superheating sections and the steam turbine, which today is used in all parabolic
storage system piping an additional pressure loss of trough power plants under construction worldwide
3 bar is assumed. (Table 1). Its advantages are high efficiency also in
part load, fast start-up, fast load changes and a good
price/performance ratio. The main steam
parameters for both cycles are defined as mentioned
before by the boundary conditions and the im-
plementation of the modular storage system. Hence,
the state-of-the-art concept is designed for
400 °C/110 bar and the concept for mid-term
application for 500 °C/156 bar.
Table1: Reference list of the Siemens SST-
700 for CSP applications.
Figure 3: Impact of the storage system on the Project Rated
main steam pressure. Site
Name Power
As a consequence, the storage system requires Nevada Solar Boulder City,
1x74 MW
One Nevada, US
steam at a high pressure level for charging (e.g.
Andasol I/II Guadix, Spain 2x50 MW
110 bar for the 400 °C concept). On the other hand
steam with significantly lower pressure (e.g. 78 bar Ibersol Puertollano,
1x50 MW
Ciudad Real Spain
for the 400 °C concept) can be delivered to the
ExtreSol I/II Spain 2x50 MW
power block during storage discharge. Along with
the reduced discharge pressure the turbine power is Solnova Sanlucar, Spain 2x50 MW
decreased. This means that the nominal power of Acciona I Spain 1x50 MW
the turbine cannot be reached during storage Helios I/II Spain 2x50 MW
operation. Because of the low main steam parameters a
reheat system is necessary to avoid unacceptable
110 bar fixed pressure mode high moisture content at the turbine outlet. The
solar field outlet pressure
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concepts is designed with a steam-steam heat The optimal FFWT is a compromise between
exchanger. the thermodynamic efficiencies of the power block
The integration of the storage system is, due to and the solar field. It should be as high as possible
the above mentioned requirements for charging and for highest thermodynamic efficiency of the power
discharging of the PCM storage, not as easy as in block because the mean temperature of heat input is
solar thermal power plants with ISG. With the risen and the conversion losses are minimized.
operation strategy described above (Figure 4) However, a high FFWT increases the thermal losses
pressure levels for the main steam are fixed for in the solar field. For FFWT of 205 °C, 245 °C and
solar-only (storage charging) and storage-only 260 °C the overall plant efficiency (gross)
operation. In parallel operation of the solar field depending on the direct solar irradiance was
and the storage system the turbine and therefore analyzed [13]. The result shows a slightly better
also the solar field is operated in sliding pressure overall efficiency for a FFWT of 260 °C than for
mode. Due to the pressure difference in parallel the 245 °C and a noticeable better efficiency than
operation (depending on the operating point) for the 205 °C. To finally determine the optimal
between the steam from the solar field and the FFWT, the part load behaviour of the plant must be
storage steam the two flows cannot be mixed. considered, too, which means calculating the annual
Possible solutions how to integrate both steam parts electricity generation.
are evaluated in the following chapter. Following the basic considerations for the
The complete layout of the DSG parabolic reheat system a steam-steam heat exchanger with
trough power plant is shown in Figure 5. condensation is proposed. Using the condensation
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power output in parallel operation because the main
steam mass flow from the solar field has not to be
limited due to the maximal pressure (storage). The
solar-only and storage-only operation is
characterized by a lower efficiency and lower
power output compared to option I because of the
layout of the turbine. Some exemplary cases are
shown in Table 2. Which option is to prefer
depends strongly on the size and the operation
strategy of the storage. Hence, the best solution can
only be determined by calculations of the annual
electricity generation.
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operation under given boundary conditions only a
subset is necessary that reflects the storage
Table2: Exemplary performance data of the
operating strategy [13]. With the assumption of a
storage integration options.
fixed price for the electricity sold the operating
I II strategy simplifies to:
performance - design point - Storage is charged only when solar field
power (gross) [MW] 50 50
power exceeds turbine net power.
- Storage is discharged only when solar field
main steam [°C/bar] 400/110 400/110
power is lower than peak power during
η (gross) [%] 40,2 39,3 discharge operation.
performance - parallel operation In case the electricity is sold at the electricity spot
(54% of steam from solar field - 46% from storage) market an optimized storage management might
power (gross) [MW] 35,4 46,0 become advantageous [16]. For the storage system,
it is assumed that it operates with an overall
main steam [°C/bar] 390,8/78 400/82,9
efficiency of 80% that means 80% of the stored
storage steam [°C/bar] - 380/78 energy can later be used during discharge. The
η (gross) [%] 38,9 37,6 discharge steam temperature is 380 °C (480 °C for
performance – storage only operation (max.) the 500°C design). The steam mass flow from the
storage allows turbine operation at the discharge
power (gross) [MW] 35,25 35,28
pressure of 78 bar (116 bar for 500 °C design). The
main steam [°C/bar] 380/78 380/78 same maximum mass flow is assumed for charge
storage steam [°C/bar] 380/78 380/78 operation.
η (gross) [%] 38,74 38,06
Results for 400 °C reference configuration
Table3: Performance data of the two
concepts in the design point. Five solar fields with different sizes have been
designed for the annual calculations. For each of
400 °C 500 °C these configurations a variation in the storage
110 bar 156 bar capacity is simulated with a reference storage
performance - design point capacity of 687 MWh (6 hours). The net electricity
power (gross) [MW] 50 50 production is given in Figure 9. The two small solar
heat input [MW] 124.3 117.6 fields are not suited since the solar field excess
thermal energy is very small compared to the
η (gross) [%] 40.2 42.5
storage capacity.
140
General assumptions for the annual calculations
net electricity yield GWh/a
120
The results presented in this paper have been 100
obtained for the location of Tabernas (Spain) with 80
an annual irradiation sum of 2111 kWh/m2 which
60 532.000 m^2
represents a medium value for the Iberian peninsula.
40 401.000 m^2
Very good sites e.g. in California can reach up to 332.000 m^2
2600 kWh/m2. 20 276.000 m^2
The parabolic trough collectors have a peak 221.000 m^2
0
optical efficiency of 75% (this value is based on a 0 200 400 600 800 1000
mean cleanliness of the mirrors). An overall
storage capacity / MWh
availability of 85% is assumed that includes
availability of the components and start-up losses. Figure 9: Electricity yield for the 400 °C
Solar field operation is possible when the direct reference configuration.
normal irradiation of the collector field reaches a Figure 10 shows the weekly energy throughput
threshold of 300 W/m2. for different storage sizes. Due to the large
By inserting a thermal storage into the solar differences in irradiation between summer and
power plant the number of possible operating points winter season the thermal storage system is nearly
is significantly increased. For the practical not used in winter time. In summer time, solar
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energy has to be dumped since the mass flow from Comparison of storage integration options
the solar field would exceed the sum of peak
turbine and charge mass flow. This loss of energy In case the steam generated in the thermal
can be reduced by enhancing the charge power of storage is mixed with the steam from the solar field
the storage system, see Table 4. The storage system the maximum turbine power is reduced since the
is assumed to operate with a thermal efficiency steam has a pressure of only 78 bar instead
of 80%. Table 4 gives also some numbers how this of 110 bar in solar-only operation. An option, as
efficiency influences the annual electricity yield. described in one of the last sections is to feed the
steam from the storage into the second high-
pressure stage of the turbine. The values of the
900 MWh annual electricity generation for both options are
687 MWh given in Table 5.
500 MWh
300 MWh When feeding the steam into the second turbine
0 MWh stage the thermal energy can be used more
efficiently and the maximum power during
combined solar and storage operation is increased.
Since the number of hours in this operation mode is
small, the benefit is compensated by the decrease in
turbine efficiency for the regular solar only
operation.
900 MWh
687 MWh
500 MWh Comparison of 400 °C and 500 °C plant
300 MWh
0 MWh The efficiency of the power block can be
improved by increasing the life steam temperature
from 400 °C to 500 °C. On the other hand the heat
losses in the solar field get larger with higher
absorber tube temperatures.
For the 400 °C reference plant the thermal
efficiency of the absorber tubes is based on the
Figure 10: Weekly storage and power block
Schott PTR-70 absorber tube with an outer
throughput for the 400 °C reference
configuration and a solar field size Table 5: Effect of storage steam integration
of 401.000 m2. for the reference storage capacity of
687 MWh
Table 4: Effect of storage parameters on the
electricity production (400 °C / 687 Annual net electricity yield
MWh). Solar Reference Option
Solar field size m2 331776 400896 532224 field 1. turbine 2. turbine Difference
Net annual electricity yield / GWh size stage stage
Reference 100.24 117.04 134.80 m2 GWh GWh %
Charge power 100% 221.184 66.75 65.58 -1.76
Efficiency 80%
276.480 84.29 82.81 -1.75
Charge power 50% 98.07 109.05 121.04
331.776 100.24 98.27 -1.96
Charge power 150% 100.24 117.44 137.40
Efficiency 60% 97.03 111.50 127.14
400.896 117.04 114.82 -1.90
Efficiency 100% 103.36 120.29 139.22 532.224 134.80 131.65 -2.34
Difference compared to reference diameter of 70 mm. Since the selective coating of
Charge power 50% -2.16% -6.82% -10.21% this tube is not stable for temperatures of 500 °C a
Charge power 150% 0.00% 0.34% 1.92% different absorber tube is used for the high
Efficiency 60% -3.20% -4.74% -5.68% temperature configuration. The coating was
Efficiency 100% 3.11% 2.78% 3.28% developed and evaluated within the DIVA project.
In addition to its higher temperature stability this
tube also has a better thermal efficiency. When
replacing the PTR-70 absorber tubes in the 400 °C
reference configuration with the more efficient
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DIVA absorber tubes [8] the annual electricity yield
is increased according to Table 6. Table 8: Collector efficiency for 400 °C and
500 °C
Table 6: Effect of absorber tube efficiency for
the 400 °C reference configuration Solar field efficiency
(687 MWh) Irradiance 400 °C 500 °C Δ
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