Energy Conversion and Management, Vol.154, 56-67, 2017
The daily and annual technical-economic analysis of the thermal storage PV-CSP system in two dispatch strategies
This study aims to exploit the low-cost generation of photovoltaic (PV) plant and high-capacity and low-cost thermal energy storage (TES) system of concentrating solar power (CSP) plant. Thus, this study proposed the thermal storage PV-CSP system, that is, using low-cost TES in the CSP system to replace high-cost battery in PV system and storing fluctuant PV electricity in TES in the form of thermal energy. The annual thermal and economic performances of the thermal storage PV-CSP system were analyzed. The total annual output from the thermal storage PV-CSP system decreased slightly compared with, the sum of PV and CSP systems separately in the conventional dispatch strategy. The annual output from the thermal storage PV-CSP plant increased by 6.52%, and capacity increased by 4.85% compared with the conventional PV-CSP system in the constant-output strategy, thereby indicating that the integration is helpful for fully utilizing solar energy. In the conventional dispatch strategy, the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) increased by 4.3% in the thermal storage PV-CSP system compared with the result of stand-alone PV plant but decreased by 22.6% compared with the result of stand-alone CSP plant. In the constant-output dispatch strategy, LCOE decreased by 19.0% in the thermal storage PV-CSP system compared with the conventional PV-CSP system. Result shows the economic efficiency of the proposed system. The power output curve is more fluid and stable in the constant-output dispatch strategy than in the conventional dispatch strategy.