Solar múltiple optimization for a solar-only thermal power plant,.pdfVIP

Solar múltiple optimization for a solar-only thermal power plant , using oil as heat transfer fluid in the parabolic trough collectors M.J . Montes , A . Abánades , J.M . Martínez-Val , M . Valdés E.T.S. I Industriales - U.N.E.D., CIJuan del Rosal, 12, 28040 Madrid, Spain E.T.S.I.Industriales - U.P.M., C/José Gutiérrez Abascal, 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain Abstract Usual size of parabolic trough solar thermal plants being built at present is approximately 50 MW . Most of these plants do not have e a thermal storage system for maintaining the power block performance at nominal conditions during long non-insolation periods. Because of that, a proper solar field size, with respect to the electric nominal power, is a fundamental choice. A too large field will be partially useless under high solar irradiance valúes whereas a small field will mainly make the power block to work at part-load conditions. This paper presents an economic optimization of the solar múltiple for a solar-only parabolic trough plant, using neither hybridiza- tion ñor thermal storage. Five parabolic trough plants have been considered, with the same parameters in the power block but different solar field sizes. Thermal performance for each solar power plant has been featured, both at nominal and part-load conditions. This char- acterization has been applied to perform a simulation in order to calcúlate the annual electricity produced by each of these plants. Once annual electric energy generation is known, levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for each plant is calculated, yi