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Water
efficient cooling of solar thermal power plants |
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Participants:
Contact:
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Founding:
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Yearly
distribution of average night and day temperatures for a site in Morocco for
assessment of storage potential for plant cooling |
Today’s solar
thermal power plants are similar in design to conventional power plants
and typically use wet cooling towers to achieve maximum performance. The
water consumption of these systems ranges between 3-1/2 and 5 tons per
MWh. Less than 3% of this water is used for mirror washing purposes. Dry-cooled
systems suffer from a significant reduction in power output, an increase
in parasitic power requirements, and higher capital cost, increasing the
levelized energy cost (LEC) by 5 to10%.
Water availability is limited in the potential market regions for solar
thermal power plants, and either environmental legislation limits its
use for cooling purposes or water costs are significantly higher than
for existing power plants. This creates a strong interest in the
development of alternative cooling concepts with low water consumption.
The purpose of this activity is to identify and optimize cooling
concepts for solar thermal power plants at sites with limited water
availability and evaluate the impact of the different cooling options on
the LEC. This includes an overview of existing cooling technologies,
including different combinations of dry and wet cooling (hybrid systems)
and the analysis of options to shift cooling load to evening and night
hours via storage concepts, which may reduce the necessary investment
and operation cost of the cooling system due to extended operation time
and reduced ambient temperature. For the evaluation of these different
options a simulation tool is developed to analyze the LEC based on the
relevant weather conditions at different project sites. Recommendations
for the design of suitable cooling systems, especially for parabolic
trough plants operating with thermal oil as heat transfer fluid, are
derived from the analysis of different case studies.
Publications:
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California Energy Commission, 2002, “Comparison of Alternative
Cooling Technologies for California Power Plants Economics,
Environmental and Other Tradoffs,” CEC 500-02-079F, Feb 2002.
http://www.energy.ca.gov/pier/final_project_reports/500-02-079f.html
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“Why
every air cooled steam condenser needs a cooling tower” LUC DE
BACKER Ph.D.; WILLIAM M. WURTZ; HAMON DRY COOLING;Presented at the
2003 Cooling Technology Institute Annual ConferenceSan Antonio,
Texas – February 10-13, 2003
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