SMUD Kokhala Power Tower Study
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO (United States)
- Sacramento Municipal Utility District, CA (United States)
Kokhala is the name of a new hybridized power tower design which integrates a nitrate-salt solar power tower with a gas turbine combined-cycle power plant. This integration achieves high value energy, low costs, and lower investor risk than a conventional solar only power tower plant. One of the primary advantages of this system is that it makes small power tower plants much more economically competitive with conventional power generation technologies. This paper is an overview of a study that performed a conceptual evaluation of a small (30 MWe) commercial plant suitable for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District`s (SMUD) Rancho Seco power plant site near Sacramento, California. This paper discusses the motivation for using a small hybrid solar plant and provides an overview of the analysis methodology used in the study. The results indicate that a power tower integrated with an advanced gas turbine, combined with Sacramento`s summer solar resource, could produce a low- risk, economically viable power generation project in the near future.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-83CH10093
- OSTI ID:
- 629317
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/CP--550-23126; CONF-9603117--; ON: DE97006926
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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