Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

System and application analyses studies, Advanced Central Power Systems Project. Midterm report

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6865730

The advanced Central Power System project is aimed at developing technology and demonstrating the technical feasibility of a more economic system than the current technology water-steam system, thereby providing utilities the option of selecting an alternate system for commercialization. The current technology system has been restricted to the use of available low risk steam and storage technology. The advanced systems will take advantage of various alternate subsystem technologies to reduce energy costs and increase the worth of solar plants to the utilities. Initial systems and application analyses have shown that advanced system concepts utilizing alternate heat transfer media such as liquid sodium, or molten salt, in the receiver and thermal storage subsystems, open and closed Brayton cycles, combined cycles and various solar-fossil hybrid systems have the potential for enhanced plant performance and decreased energy production costs with only modest extensions in the state-of-the-art technology. However, these potentials must be weighed against the technical and economic risks associated with high temperature equipment design and operation. An evaluation and selection process is required to narrow down the various options leading to a single promising design. Aerospace efforts during this reporting period have emphasized a systematic identification and evaluation of a variety of advanced system and storage options to select preferred options for further design and application studies. Emphasis has also been placed on the extension and development of a flexible application methodology to analyze and simulate the characteristics of various types of advanced system and subsystem concepts, hybrid operation, and alternate dispatch strategies.

Research Organization:
Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA (USA). Energy and Transportation Div.
OSTI ID:
6865730
Report Number(s):
SAN-1101-1; ATR-77(7690-01)-2
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English