A thermo-economic simulation model of a hybrid solar gas-turbine (HSGT) power plant with an integrated storage unit has been developed, allowing determination of the thermodynamic and economic performance. Designs were based around two representative industrial gas-turbines: a high efficiency machine and a low temperature machine. In order to examine the trade-offs that must be made, multi-objective thermo-economic analysis was performed, with two conflicting objectives: minimum investment costs and minimum specific carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. It was shown that with the integration of storage, annual solar shares above 85% can be achieved by HSGT systems. The levelized electricity cost (LEC) for the gas-turbine system as this level of solar integration was similar to that of parabolic trough plants, allowing them to compete directly in the solar power market. At the same time, the water consumption of the gas-turbine system is significantly lower than contemporary steam-cycle based solar thermal power plants.

The solar receiver is one of the key components of hybrid solar micro gas-turbine systems, which would seem to present a number of advantages when compared with Stirling engine based systems and photovoltaic panels. In this study a solar receiver meeting the specific requirements for integration into a small-scale (10 kW_el) dish-mounted hybrid solar micro gas-turbine system has been designed with a special focus on the trade-offs between efficiency, pressure drop, material utilization and economic design. A situation analysis, performed using a multi-objective optimizer, has shown that a pressurized configuration, where the solar receiver is placed before the turbine, is superior to an atmospheric configuration with the solar receiver placed after the turbine. Based on these initial design results, coupled CFD/FEM simulations have been performed, allowing detailed analysis of the designs under the expected operating conditions. The results show that the use of volumetric solar receivers to provide heat input to micro gas-turbine based solar dish systems appears to be a promising solution; with material temperatures and material stresses well below permissible limits.

The operation of steam turbine units in solar thermal power plants is very different than in conventional base-load plants. Due to the variability of the solar resource, much higher frequencies of plant start-ups are encountered. This study provides an insight to the influence of thermal energy storage (TES) integration on the typical cycling operation of solar thermal power plants. It is demonstrated that the integration of storage leads to significant reductions in the annual number of turbine starts and is thus beneficial to the turbine lifetime. At the same time, the effects of storage integration on the electricity costs are analyzed to ensure that the designs remain economically competitive. Large storage capacities, can allow the plant to be shifted from a daily starting regime to one where less than 20 plant starts occur annually. Additionally, the concept of equivalent operating hours (EOHs) is used to further analyze the direct impact of storage integration on the maintenance planning of the turbine units.

The hybridization of combined-cycle power plants with solar energy is an attractive means of reducing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from gas-based power generation. However, the construction of the first generation of commercial hybrid power plants will present the designer with a large number of choices. To assist decision making, a thermo-economic study has been performed for three different hybrid power plant configurations, including both solar thermal and photovoltaic hybridization options. Solar photovoltaic combined-cycle (SPVCC) power plants were shown to be able to integrate up to 63% solar energy on an annual basis, whereas hybrid gas turbine combined-cycle (HGTCC) systems provide the lowest cost of solar electricity, with costs only 2.1% higher than a reference, unmodified combined-cycle power plant. The integrated solar combined-cycle (ISCC) configuration has been shown to be economically unattractive.

The present work deals with the thermoeconomic analysis of an innovative combined power cycle consisting of a molten- salt solar tower power plant with storage supported by additional heat provided from the exhaust of a topping gas- turbine unit. A detailed dynamic model has been elaborated using an in house simulation tool that simultaneously encompasses meteorological, demand and price data. A wide range of possible designs are evaluated in order to show the trade-offs between the objectives of achieving sustainable and economically competitive designs. Results show that optimal designs of the novel concept are a promising cost-effective hybrid option that can successfully fulfill both the roles of a gas peaker plant and a baseload solar power plant in a more effective manner. Moreover, designs are also compared against conventional combined cycle gas turbine power plants and it is shown that, under specific peaking operating strategies, the innovative concept can not only perform better from an environmental standpoint but also economically.

To optimize the start-up schedules of steam turbines operating in concentrating solar power plants, accurate predictions of the temperatures within the turbine are required. In previous work by the authors, thermal models of steam turbines have been developed and validated for parabolic trough solar power plant applications. Building on these results, there is an interest to increase the adaptability of the models with respect to different turbine geometries due to the growing trend of having larger steam turbines in parabolic trough and solar tower power plants. In this work, a modular geometric approach has been developed and compared against both the previous modeling approach and 96h of measured data from an operational parabolic trough power plant. Results show a large degree of agreement with respect to the measured data in spite of the different detail levels. The new model allows for simple and fast prediction of the thermal behavior of different steam turbine sizes and geometries, which is expected to be of significant importance for future concentrating solar power plants.

The integration of thermal energy storage systems in concentrating solar thermal power plants allows power production to be shifted from times where there is low demand to periods where electricity prices are higher. Although increasing the total investment, thermal energy storage can therefore enhance profitability of the solar power plant. The present study presents optimum power plant configurations for a given location considering different price-based grid integration strategies. Such optimum plant configurations were determined using a thermo-economic optimization approach where the operating strategy was set such that electricity was generated once the market price exceeds a given price level, defined as the minimum price selling indicator. Plants were optimized for different indicator values to cover designs from base load and peak power production. For each of these price-operating strategies, optimum plant configurations were found by varying two solar-related design parameters, namely the solar multiple and the storage size, whilst simultaneously evaluating the economic performance of each design. Finally, an economic analysis was performed for each of the optimum power plants, assuming financial conditions throughout the lifetime of the power plant. Results show that the optimum plant configurations vary with respect to the chosen operating strategy. Optimum configurations for peak power production yielded relatively smaller storage units than that of the optimum baseload plants. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that under current cost estimations, and for the specified location, concentrating solar thermal power is not an attractive option for utility-grid investors. However, it is shown that when considering a reduction in investment costs or the possibility of having renewable electricity incentives such as the investment tax credit treasury cash grant, concentrating solar thermal power plants can become an economically viable technology.

A thermo-economic optimization model of an integrated solar combined-cycle (ISCC) has been developed to evaluate the performance of an existing combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant when retrofitted with solar trough collectors. The model employs evolutionary algorithms to assess the optimal performance and cost of the power plant. To define the trade-offs required for maximizing gains and minimizing costs (and to identify ‘optimal’ hybridization schemes), two conflicting objectives were considered, namely, minimum required investment and maximum net present value (NPV). Optimiza- tion was performed for various feed-in tariff (FIT) regimes, with tariff levels that were either fixed or that varied with electricity pool prices. It was found that for the givencombined-cycle power plant design, only small annual solar shares (?1.2% annual share, 4% of installed capacity) could be achieved by retrofitting. The integrated solar combined-cycle design has optimal thermal storage capacities that are several times smaller than those of the corresponding solar-only design. Even with strong incentives to shift the load to periods in which the prices are higher, investment in storage capacity was not promoted. Nevertheless, the levelized costs of the additional solar-generated electricity are as low as 10 ce/kWh, compared to the 17–19 ce/kWh achieved for a reference, nonhybridized, “solar-only” concentrating solar power plant optimized with the same tools and cost dataset. The main reasons for the lower cost of the integrated solar combined-cycle power plant are improved solar-to-electric efficiency and the lower level of required investment in the steam cycle. The retrofitting of combined-cycle gas turbine plants to integrated solar combined-cycle plants with parabolic troughs represents a viable option to achieve relatively low-cost capacity expansion and strong knowledge building regarding concentrating solar power.

The operation of steam turbine units in solar thermal power plants is very different than in conventional base-load plants. Due to the variability of the solar resource, much higher frequencies of plant start-ups are encountered. This study provides an insight to the influence of thermal energy storage integration on the typical cycling operation of solar thermal power plants. It is demonstrated that the integration of storage leads to significant reductions in the annual number of turbine starts and is thus beneficial to the turbine lifetime. At the same time, the effects of storage integration on the electricity costs are analyzed to ensure that the designs remain economically competitive. Large storage capacities, can allow the plant to be shifted from a daily starting regime to one where less than 20 plant starts occur annually. Additionally, the concept of equivalent operating hours is used to further analyze the direct impact of storage integration on the maintenance planning of the turbine units.

Unlike most of renewable energy technologies, solar thermal power plants with integrated thermal energy storage are able to store heat from the sun and thereby supply electricity whenever it is needed to meet the demand. This attribute makes concentrating solar power ideally suited to compensate for fluctuations in other renewable energy sources. In order to analyze this market role, three scenarios were modeled, with low, medium and high penetrations of non- dispatchable renewables (i.e. wind and solar photovoltaics). The demand that cannot be met by these variable sources is met by a solar thermal power plant with heat provided either by a solar field and storage system or a back-up gas burner. For each scenario, the size of the solar field and storage were varied in order to show the trade-off between the levelized generation costs of the system, the annual specific CO2 emissions and the share of renewable electricity generation. The results show that, regardless of the scenario, there exist optimum plant configurations with viable costs whilst simultaneously ensuring a considerable reduction in CO2 emissions. Furthermore, it is shown that the limited flexibility of the power block prevents the system from reaching higher levels of sustainability. Lastly, the results were compared with an equivalent combined cycle power plant, showing that solutions involving solar thermal power can be justified in environmental terms only if large storage units are integrated into the plants.