Comparative analysis of Different CSP plant configurations in Saudi Arabia

The present paper compares the performance of different Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants. The first plant configuration is a regenerative Steam Rankine Cycle (SRC) rated 50 MW, with 8-hour full-load Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system. The alternative solution is an Integrated Solar Combined Cycle (ISCC), where the steam generated by the solar section is joined to the one produced in the Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) and is expanded in the steam turbine, producing 20 MW of extra power. As far as the solar field is concerned, for each plant configuration two different technologies are considered: Parabolic Trough Collectors (PTC) and Central Receiver System (CRS), using respectively thermal oil and molten salt mixture as heat transfer fluid (HTF). Commercial software and in-house computer codes are combined together to predict the CSP plant performance both on design and off-design conditions. Plants are supposed to be located in the Riyadh region (KSA). Results of yearly simulations on hourly basis are presented and discussed. Main outputs such as gross electricity production and cycle efficiency are reported. The goal of the paper is to evaluate the power production and the efficiency for the considered CSP technologies in real operating conditions.