Evaluation of solar thermal power plants using economic and performance simulationsAn energy cost analysis is presented for central receiver power plants with thermal storage and point focusing power plants with electrical storage. The present approach is based on optimizing the size of the plant to give the minimum energy cost (in mills/kWe hr) of an annual plant energy production. The optimization is done by considering the trade-off between the collector field size and the storage capacity for a given engine size. The energy cost is determined by the plant cost and performance. The performance is estimated by simulating the behavior of the plant under typical weather conditions. Plant capital and operational costs are estimated based on the size and performance of different components. This methodology is translated into computer programs for automatic and consistent evaluation.
Document ID
19800053853
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Authors
El-Gabawali, N. (California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena Calif., United States)