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- Guédez, Rafael, et al.
(författare)
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A methodology for determining optimum solar tower plant configurations and operating strategies to maximize profits based on hourly electricity market prices and tariffs
- 2015
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Ingår i: ASME 2015 9th International Conference on Energy Sustainability, ES 2015, collocated with the ASME 2015 Power Conference, the ASME 2015 13th International Conference on Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology, and the ASME 2015 Nuclear Forum. - : ASME Press. - 9780791856840
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The present study analyses the influence that market conditions have on determining optimum molten salt solar tower plants with storage that maximize profits (in terms of plant configuration, sizing and operation) for a location in South Africa. Three different scenarios based on incentive programs and local wholesale electricity prices are considered. A multi-objective optimization modeling approach was followed, showing the trade-off curves between minimizing investment and maximizing profits when varying critical sizerelated parameters (such as nameplate capacity, solar multiple and storage capacity) together with power-cycle design and operating specifications including dynamic start-up curves and different storage dispatchability strategies. Results are shown by means of a comparative analysis between optimal plants found for each scenario, highlighting the value that storage has under the current two-tier tariff scheme, and the relevance of designing a suitable policy for technology development. Lastly, a final analysis is performed with regards of the indicators used for economic evaluation of power plants, by comparing the differences between optimum designs found when using the levelized cost of electricity solely as performance indicator instead of cash-flows and profit-based indicators, such as the internal rate of return.
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- Guedez, Rafael Eduardo, et al.
(författare)
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Enhancing the profitability of solar tower power plants through thermoeconomic analysis based on multi-objective optimization
- 2015
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Ingår i: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER AND CHEMICAL ENERGY SYSTEMS, SOLARPACES 2014. - : Elsevier BV. ; , s. 1277-1286
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Solar tower power plants with integrated thermal energy storage units represent one of the most promising technologies for enhancing the economic viability of concentrating solar power in the short term. Tower systems allow higher concentration ratios to be achieved, which in turn means higher fluid operating temperatures and thus higher power cycle efficiencies. Moreover, the integration of storage allows power production to be shifted from times where there is low demand to periods where electricity prices are higher, potentially enhancing the profitability of the plant despite representing an additional upfront cost. The variable nature of the solar resource and the myriad potential roles that storage can assume, together with the complexity of enhancing the synergies between the three blocks: the solar field, the storage block and power block, make the design of these power plants a challenging process. This paper introduces a comprehensive methodology for designing solar tower power plants based on a thermoeconomic approach that allows the true optimum trade-off curves between cost, profitability and investment to be identified while simultaneously considering several operating strategies as well as varying critical design parameters in each of the aforementioned blocks. The methodology is presented by means of analyzing the design of a power plant for the region of Seville. For this location, results show that similar profits, measured in terms of the internal rate of return, can be achieved from different power plant configurations in terms of sizing and operating strategy, each associated to different investments. In particular, optimum configurations found corresponded to larger power blocks with medium-to-large solar field and storage blocks that allow the plants to operate continuously throughout the day and be shut down during midnight. Moreover, it is shown that for a fixed power block size it can also be economically interesting to consider smaller storage units and adopt instead a peaking strategy, as this can still be profitable whilst representing a lower investment, thus lower risk.
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