A Quest to the Cheapest Method for Electricity Generation in Concentrating Solar Power Plants

AbstractA systematic analysis is presented of a CSP plant family based on:-A solar radiation concentrator according to the Advanced Fresnel linear mirror system which optimizes the ratio between captured radiation and weigh of the concentrator.-A receiver using dry air (at 10MPa) as heat carrier fluid, working as a bunch of pipes with outstanding performances of thermal efficiency.-A low-losses receiver using air at a constant pressure of 0.1MPa, with strong suppression of radiation and convection.-A plant layout with to separated regions, the inner one directly connected to the Power Block through a steam generator; and the outer region where hot air is driven to an intermediate heat exchanger where a stream of molten salt is heated, and collected, and sent to a second steam generator feeding the power block.-The molten salt streams can be stored as thermal energy storage, so that the plant can be fully regulated and could work after sunset.The main result is that a simple and robust design of CSP plants embodying a number of patents and other innovations can be identified as a main road to reach commercial maturity and to low down costs until becoming competitive with traditional energy sources. This technology is estimated to achieve annual efficiencies of 13%, in the same order of magnitude than parabolic trough collectors