Preliminary Screening of Thermal Storage Concepts for Water/Steam and Organic Fluid Solar Thermal Receiver Systems

Technical Report · Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1980

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5287039· OSTI ID:5287039

Copeland, Robert J.; Karpuk, Michael E.; Ullman, Jane L.

A preliminary comparison of thermal storage concepts for solar thermal applications was done generically for large and small solar systems with sensible and latent heat and two-stage storage concepts. Concepts were ranked based on the cost of delivered energy. A +- 20% uncertainty in subsystem cost was included in the analysis. Water/steam and organic fluid collector/receivers were studied separately. For the water/steam concept, Barstow technology (100 MW/sub e/) was examined. A nitrite/nitrate salt with a low-cost solid medium was best for buffer storage; for diurnal storage, the two-stage draw salt/low-cost media and oil/rock concept was best. Phase change concepts require improvements on the concept analyzed to be attractive. For the organic fluid system, a Shenandoah total energy system was examined. The Syltherm trickle charge taconite concept was the most favorable and may be improved by replacing the taconite with a lower-cost oil-compatible medium. Salt concepts can be competitive with this system only if there is a low-cost solid medium that is compatible with the salt and the end use requires a large amount of storage. The phase change concept examined was found to be quite poor for this total energy application.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 5287039
• Report Number(s): SERI/TR-631-647
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140700 -- Solar Thermal Power Systems
142000* -- Solar Energy-- Heat Storage-- (1980-)
comparative evaluations
COMPATIBILITY
COST
economics
ENERGY STORAGE
EQUIPMENT
FLUIDS
HEAT STORAGE
heat transfer fluids
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
latent heat storage
materials
NITRATES
NITRITES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
OILS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PERFORMANCE
PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS
POWER PLANTS
rock beds
SALTS
sensible heat storage
solar energy
SOLAR POWER PLANTS
SOLAR THERMAL POWER PLANTS
steam
STORAGE
systems analysis
thermal energy storage equipment
WATER
water energy