AN EVOLUTIONARY PATH FOR CONCENTRATING THERMAL SOLAR POWER TECHNOLOGIES: A NEW APPROACH FOR MODELLING CSP POWER COSTS AND POTENTIAL

摘要

In this paper we explore the tradeoffs between thermal storage capacity, cost, and other system parameters in order to examine possible evolutionary pathways for thermal Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technologies. As the fraction of electricity supplied by CSP technologies grows, the application of thermal CSP technologies might therefore progress from current hybrid plants, to plants with a modest amount of thermal storage, and potentially even to plants with sufficient thermal storage to provide base load generation capacity. The cost and performance parameter space for these pathways are presented.