Large capacity, multi-fuel, and high temperature working fluid heaters to optimize CSP plant cost, complexity and annual generation

This paper analyses the potential to optimize high temperature fluid back-up systems for concentrating solar power (CSP) plants by investigating the cost impact of component capacity and the impact of using multiple fuels on annual generation. Until now back-up heaters have been limited to 20MWth capacity but larger units have been realised in other industries. Installing larger units yields economy-of-scale benefits through improved manufacturing, optimised transport, and minimized on-site installation work. Halving the number of back-up boilers can yield cost reduction of 23% while minimizing plant complexity and on-site construction risk. However, to achieve these benefits it is important to adapt the back-up heaters to the plant’s requirements (load change, capacity, minimum load, etc.) and design for manufacture, transport and assembly.Despite the fact that biomass availability is decreasing with increasing direct normal irradiance (DNI), some biomass is available in areas suitable for CSP plants. Th...