Perspective of concentrating solar power

Ya-Ling He, Yu Qiu, Kun Wang, Fan Yuan, Wen-Qi Wang, Ming-Jia Li and Jia-Qi Guo

Energy, 2020, vol. 198, issue C

Abstract: In this perspective paper, the present status and development tendency of concentrating solar power (CSP) are analyzed from two aspects: (1) Potential pathways to efficient CSP through improving operation temperature to above 700 °C; (2) Technologies for efficient solar collection, thermal storage, and power generation at >700 °C. Based on the analyses, barriers on the way to the high-temperature CSP are summarized. They are: (1) the lack of methodology for heliostat design and field layout optimization, (2) significant performance degradations of solar-thermal conversion, heat storage and transfer in receiver and thermal energy storage due to high temperature, (3) the lack of suitable supercritical CO2(S–CO2) Brayton cycle for CSP and mature design methods for S–CO2 components. To overcome these issues, perspectives on following three aspects are proposed. Firstly, optimization approaches for optimal heliostat size and layout, and game-changing techniques for heliostat structure design should be brainstormed. Secondly, receivers and thermal storage devices designed through efficiency-improving approaches and fabricated by durable materials should be developed to maintain efficient and reliable operation. Thirdly, the developments of novel S–CO2 cycle and corresponding key components are eagerly desired to achieve efficient thermal-electric conversion. Perspectives from this paper would present possible approaches to efficient CSP.

Keywords: Concentrating solar power; Solar concentrator; Solar receiver; Thermal energy storage; S–CO2 Brayton cycle (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (81)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:198:y:2020:i:c:s0360544220304801

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2020.117373

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