Levelized Cost of Heat of the CSP th Hybrid Central Tower Technology

Irving Cruz-Robles, Jorge M. Islas-Samperio and Claudio A. Estrada ()
Additional contact information
Irving Cruz-Robles: Institute of Renewable Energy, National Autonomous University of Mexico (IER-UNAM), Priv. Xochicalco S/N, Temixco 62580, Morelos, Mexico
Jorge M. Islas-Samperio: Institute of Renewable Energy, National Autonomous University of Mexico (IER-UNAM), Priv. Xochicalco S/N, Temixco 62580, Morelos, Mexico
Claudio A. Estrada: Institute of Renewable Energy, National Autonomous University of Mexico (IER-UNAM), Priv. Xochicalco S/N, Temixco 62580, Morelos, Mexico

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 22, 1-23

Abstract: Process heating represents about two-thirds of the energy that the industry sector consumes worldwide; this energy comes primarily from burning fossil fuels. There is a wide variety of processes for which solar technologies can supply energy. Within these technologies, the CSP th Central Tower produces heat at temperatures about 600 °C, making it suitable for high-temperature processes. A CSP th Central Tower can be combined with a fuel-based system to form a CSP th Hybrid Central Tower system, which results in a high-reliable energy source with low rates of CO 2 emissions. In this work, the levelized cost of heat ( LCOH ) of the CSP th Hybrid Central Tower technology was calculated. SolarPILOT was used to design and evaluate the CSP th Central Tower; fuel consumption was calculated using a steady-state energy balance. The LCOH was evaluated considering the CO 2 prices recommended by the High-Level Commission on Carbon Pricing. The analysis shows that this technology can be highly competitive and, in certain cases, shows lower LCOH than fuel-based systems. However, these cases depend on reasonable CO 2 prices, low costs of capital (≈5%), and efforts to reduce the capital expenditure, which can nowadays be possible for CSP th Hybrid Central Tower systems designed with large solar multiples.

Keywords: CSP th Central Tower technology; industrial process heating; levelized cost of heat (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/22/8528/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/22/8528/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:22:p:8528-:d:972820

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().