This study concerns the assessment of the potential economic gain provided by coupling a water storage to indirect dry-cooling systems for steam condensation in CSP power plants. The purpose of the water buffer is to store some of the latent heat of steam condensation during the turbine operation and to reject it at night, in order to shift a share of the cooling work and exploit the high diurnal temperature range of desert areas. The energy and economic performances of different technical configurations and sizes of the cooling system are investigated by the parametric analysis of a theoretical case study, referred to an existing solar power plant and based on historical meteorological data. The simulation campaign outcome indicates that in desert climates the use of the water storage actually allows for a significant reduction of the dry-coolers installed capacity and related cost. Anyway, the assessment of the actual feasibility of this novel cooling system requires a detailed analysis of each specific plant design, since its economic potential depends on several and uncertain cost variables
PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF INDIRECT DRY-COOLING SYSTEMS WITH WATER BUFFER STORAGE FOR CSP PLANT
PISTOCCHINI, LORENZO;MOTTA, MARIO
2011-01-01
Abstract
This study concerns the assessment of the potential economic gain provided by coupling a water storage to indirect dry-cooling systems for steam condensation in CSP power plants. The purpose of the water buffer is to store some of the latent heat of steam condensation during the turbine operation and to reject it at night, in order to shift a share of the cooling work and exploit the high diurnal temperature range of desert areas. The energy and economic performances of different technical configurations and sizes of the cooling system are investigated by the parametric analysis of a theoretical case study, referred to an existing solar power plant and based on historical meteorological data. The simulation campaign outcome indicates that in desert climates the use of the water storage actually allows for a significant reduction of the dry-coolers installed capacity and related cost. Anyway, the assessment of the actual feasibility of this novel cooling system requires a detailed analysis of each specific plant design, since its economic potential depends on several and uncertain cost variablesI documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
