Life Cycle Assessment of a Parabolic Trough Concentrating Solar Power Plant and Impacts of Key Design Alternatives: Preprint

Conference · Thu Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 2011

OSTI ID:1026581

Heath, G A; Burkhardt, J J; Turchi, C S

Climate change and water scarcity are important issues for today's power sector. To inform capacity expansion decisions, hybrid life cycle assessment is used to evaluate a reference design of a parabolic trough concentrating solar power (CSP) facility located in Daggett, California, along four sustainability metrics: life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water consumption, cumulative energydemand (CED), and energy payback time (EPBT). This wet-cooled, 103 MW plant utilizes mined nitrate salts in its two-tank, thermal energy storage (TES) system. Design alternatives of dry-cooling, a thermocline TES, and synthetically-derived nitrate salt are evaluated. During its life cycle, the reference CSP plant is estimated to emit 26 g CO2eq per kWh, consume 4.7 L/kWh of water, and demand 0.40 MJeq/kWh of energy, resulting in an EPBT of approximately 1 year. The dry-cooled alternative is estimated to reduce life cycle water consumption by 77% but increase life cycle GHG emissions and CED by 8%. Synthetic nitrate salts may increase life cycle GHG emissions by 52% compared to mined. Switching from two-tank to thermocline TES configuration reduces life cycle GHG emissions, mostsignificantly for plants using synthetically-derived nitrate salts. CSP can significantly reduce GHG emissions compared to fossil-fueled generation; however, dry-cooling may be required in many locations to minimize water consumption.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1026581
• Report Number(s): NREL/CP-6A20-52186
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CAPACITY
CLIMATES
CLIMATIC CHANGE
CONFIGURATION
DESIGN
ENERGY DEMAND
ENERGY STORAGE
EPBT
GHG
GREENHOUSE GASES
LCA
LIFE CYCLE
LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT
METRICS
NITRATES
SOLAR POWER PLANTS
WATER USE
energy payback
greenhouse gases (GHG)
water consumption