Jürgen Dersch

Trough Integration into Power Plants - a Study on the Performance and Economy of Integrated Solar Combined Cycle Systems

Parabolic trough solar technology has been proven at nine commercial Solar Electric Generating Systems (SEGS) power plants that are operating in the California Mojave desert. These plants utilize steam Rankine cycle power plants, and as a result, most people associate parabolic trough solar technology with steam Rankine cycle power plant technology. Although these plants are clearly optimized for their particular application, other power cycle designs may be appropriate in other situations. Of particular interest is the integration of parabolic trough solar technology with combined cycle power plant technology. This configuration is referred to as integrated solar combined cycle systems (ISCCS). Four potential projects in India, Egypt, Morocco, and Mexico are considering the ISCCS type solar power cycle configurations. The key questions are when is the ISCCS configuration preferred over the SEGS power cycle configuration and how is the ISCCS plant designed to optimize the integration of the solar field and the power cycle. This paper reviews the results of a collaborative effort under the International Energy Agency SolarPACES organization to address these questions and it shows the potential environmental and economic benefits of each configuration.

LCOE reduction potential of parabolic trough and solar tower CSP technology until 2025

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP), with an installed capacity of 4.9 GW by 2015, is a young technology compared to other renewable power generation technologies. A limited number of plants and installed capacity in a small challenging market environment make reliable and transparent cost data for CSP difficult to obtain. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the DLR German Aerospace Center gathered and evaluated available cost data from various sources for this publication in order to yield transparent, reliable and up-to-date cost data for a set of reference parabolic trough and solar tower plants in the year 2015 [1]. Each component of the power plant is analyzed for future technical innovations and cost reduction potential based on current R&D activities, ongoing commercial developments and growth in market scale. The derived levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for 2015 and 2025 are finally contrasted with published power purchase agreements (PPA) of the NOOR II+III power plants in Moroc...

Guidelines for CSP yield analysis-Definition of elementary terms

With the success of CSP technology in the last years more players are active in the market, inducing the need for harmonization of technical terms and methodologies. The mission of the SolarPACES “guiSmo” project which was started in 2010 is to develop a guideline for CSP yield analysis [1]. Activities carried out so far have shown that people have different understandings of many terms used in daily CSP practice. Especially for the development of guidelines, the essential terms need to be clearly defined in order to avoid inconsistencies within the same project. A first version of a nomenclature has been compiled by the “guiSmo” team and will undergo final discussion. The aim is to come to a harmonized version by Summer 2013 which will then be presented at the ASME Energy Sustainability conference. The compilation so far includes essential definitions of terms like direct normal irradiance, incident angles, heat flows, and efficiencies on a system level. The definitions presented will be discussed together with existing standards like the ISO 80000 (physical quantities and units of measurement), the ISO 9488 (Solar energy-vocabulary) and other relevant sources. Although the list of terms is primarily put together for the work in the “guiSmo” project, it might serve as a basis for standardization in the official councils. An international group of solar experts is involved in the preparation of the document in order to ensure high quality and international support for the results.

The first version of the SolarPACES guideline for bankable STE Yield assessment

The yield assessment guideline project has reached another milestone by the publication of the first version of the guideline (in 2016) as a SolarPACES report. It is the first document of its kind that systematically addresses the vital aspects of STE yield assessment and lists minimum requirements for high quality yield assessment. In the future, the guideline main document will be supported by a number of working documents which provide more details on modeling approaches.

Simulation of hybrid solar power plants

Hybrid solar power plants have the potential to combine advantages of two different technologies at the cost of increased complexity. The present paper shows the potential of the software greenius for the techno-economic evaluation of hybrid solar power plants and discusses two exemplary scenarios. Depreciated Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants based on trough technology can be retrofitted with solar towers in order to reach higher steam cycle temperatures and hence efficiencies. Compared to a newly built tower plant the hybridization of a depreciated trough plant causes about 30% lower LCOE reaching 104

Steps towards a CSP yield calculation guideline: A first draft for discussion in the SolarPACES working group guiSmo

/MWh. The second hybrid scenario combines cost-efficient photovoltaics with dispatchable CSP technology. This hybrid plant offers very high capacity factors up to 69% based on 100% load from 8am to 11pm. The LCOE of the hybrid plant are only slightly lower (174 vs. 186

Integration of Solar Process Heat into an Existing Thermal Desalination Plant in Qatar

/MWh) compared to the pure CSP plant because the capital expenditure for thermal storage and power block remains the same while the electricity output is much lower.Hybrid solar power plants have the potential to combine advantages of two different technologies at the cost of increased complexity. The present paper shows the potential of the software greenius for the techno-economic evaluation of hybrid solar power plants and discusses two exemplary scenarios. Depreciated Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants based on trough technology can be retrofitted with solar towers in order to reach higher steam cycle temperatures and hence efficiencies. Compared to a newly built tower plant the hybridization of a depreciated trough plant causes about 30% lower LCOE reaching 104

Solar outdoor cooling in Qatar as new reality

/MWh. The second hybrid scenario combines cost-efficient photovoltaics with dispatchable CSP technology. This hybrid plant offers very high capacity factors up to 69% based on 100% load from 8am to 11pm. The LCOE of the hybrid plant are only slightly lower (174 vs. 186

Operational strategy of a two-step thermochemical process for solar hydrogen production

/MWh) compared to the pure CSP plant because the capital expenditure for thermal storage and power block remains the same while the e...

Comparison of Linear Fresnel and Parabolic Trough Collector Systems - System Analysis to determine Break Even Costs of Linear Fresnel Collectors

This paper provides an overview on an important step towards a SolarPACES guideline for CSP yield calculation. With the increasing number of CSP installations, standardization becomes more and more important for further reduction of costs and increase in quality. Yield calculation is a key issue throughout all phases of project development and throughout most of the involved players. Due to the need for more complex process models for CSP compared to other renewables like PV or wind, the yield calculation procedure is more demanding. Uncertainties in the process are covered by additional but partially unnecessary risk surcharges since systematic approaches for avoiding expensive redundancies in risk buffers are not available. It is the main motivation of the mentioned CSP yield calculation guideline to overcome this situation by providing a detailed methodology for yield calculation. A first comprehensive draft version has been compiled and will be subject of discussion in the SolarPACES working group gui...