Evaluating a concentrating solar power plant as an extended-duration peaking resource

Yagi, Kenjiro; Sioshansi, Ramteen; Denholm, Paul

doi:10.1016/j.solener.2019.08.008

Title: Evaluating a concentrating solar power plant as an extended-duration peaking resource

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Abstract

We explore the ability of a concentrating solar power (CSP) plant with thermal energy storage (TES) to provide peaking capacity. We focus on future power systems, wherein net load patterns may be significantly different than they are today (e.g., due to higher renewable-energy penetrations). Here, we examine 28 locations in the southwestern United States over an 18-year period. The hourly operation of the CSP plants are simulated to determine their potential to provide energy during an eight-hour peak-load window for each day up to 365 days per year. Our result shows that for the large majority of locations and years, CSP plants with certain configurations (i.e., in terms of solar field and TES sizes) can provide nearly 100% peak-load capacity. We examine also the amount of supplemental energy (e.g., by using natural gas as a supplemental thermal-energy source) that would be required to ensure that a CSP plant could serve the eight highest-load hours of every day of the year. We find that in most cases, a CSP plant supplemented with natural gas would require less than 5% of the fuel that is used by a natural-gas fired power plant providing the same level of reliable capacity. A series ofmore »« less

Authors:

Yagi, Kenjiro ^[1];

^[1];

^[2]

The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Publication Date:: Tue Sep 24 00:00:00 EDT 2019

Research Org.:: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

Contributing Org.:: Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC

OSTI Identifier:: 1566280

Alternate Identifier(s):: OSTI ID: 1566211

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Solar Energy

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 191; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0038-092X

Publisher:: Elsevier

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 14 SOLAR ENERGY; Concentrating solar power; thermal energy storage; peaking generation; capacity value

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                    Yagi, Kenjiro, Sioshansi, Ramteen, and Denholm, Paul. Evaluating a concentrating solar power plant as an extended-duration peaking resource.  United States: N. p., 2019. 
Web.  doi:10.1016/j.solener.2019.08.008.

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                    Yagi, Kenjiro, Sioshansi, Ramteen, & Denholm, Paul. Evaluating a concentrating solar power plant as an extended-duration peaking resource.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.08.008

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                    Yagi, Kenjiro, Sioshansi, Ramteen, and Denholm, Paul. Tue .  
"Evaluating a concentrating solar power plant as an extended-duration peaking resource".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.08.008.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1566280.

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@article{osti_1566280,

  title        = {Evaluating a concentrating solar power plant as an extended-duration peaking resource},

  author       = {Yagi, Kenjiro and Sioshansi, Ramteen and Denholm, Paul},

  abstractNote = {We explore the ability of a concentrating solar power (CSP) plant with thermal energy storage (TES) to provide peaking capacity. We focus on future power systems, wherein net load patterns may be significantly different than they are today (e.g., due to higher renewable-energy penetrations). Here, we examine 28 locations in the southwestern United States over an 18-year period. The hourly operation of the CSP plants are simulated to determine their potential to provide energy during an eight-hour peak-load window for each day up to 365 days per year. Our result shows that for the large majority of locations and years, CSP plants with certain configurations (i.e., in terms of solar field and TES sizes) can provide nearly 100% peak-load capacity. We examine also the amount of supplemental energy (e.g., by using natural gas as a supplemental thermal-energy source) that would be required to ensure that a CSP plant could serve the eight highest-load hours of every day of the year. We find that in most cases, a CSP plant supplemented with natural gas would require less than 5% of the fuel that is used by a natural-gas fired power plant providing the same level of reliable capacity. A series of sensitivity analyses show that these results are robust to the number of peak-load hours and days that are considered and the configuration of the CSP plant.},

  doi          = {10.1016/j.solener.2019.08.008},

  journal      = {Solar Energy},

  number       = C,

  volume       = 191,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Tue Sep 24 00:00:00 EDT 2019},

  month        = {Tue Sep 24 00:00:00 EDT 2019}

}

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Evaluating a Concentrating Solar Power Plant as an Extended-Duration Peaking Resource

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We explore the ability of a concentrating solar power (CSP) plant with thermal energy storage (TES) to provide peaking capacity. We focus on future power systems, wherein net load patterns may be significantly different than they are today (e.g., due to higher renewable-energy penetrations). We examine 28 locations in the southwestern United States over an 18-year period. The hourly operation of the CSP plants are simulated to determine their potential to provide energy during an eight-hour peak-load window for each day up to 365 days per year. Our result shows that for the large majority of locations and years, CSPmore »« less
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