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One big shining point of Parabolic Trough Power Plant (PTPP), the so-called
dispatchability, is its potential to provide power 24 hours a day, by storing the heat
energy in a thermal storage unit for later use during peak hours, in the evening or on a
cloudy day. It enhances the annual capacity of a plant by 50 % over one without a
thermal energy storage system (TES). Within current technology, heat is much cheaper
to store than electricity. Nearly all current existing solar thermal plants that have backup systems are supported by fossil fuels, but a TES completely hoisted by the power the
plant generates itself is within reach. Several storage mechanisms have been put in
place while other proposals are still in lab-scale. Progress is being achieved by
improvements on old systems and alternative designs. ,
Single-Tank Thermocline
Phase-Change Materials
Single-Tank Thermocline
To further reduce the cost of the storage fluid and the storage tanks, researchers moved
forward to a single tank called thermocline. Energy is stored in a tank made of solid
storage medium--commonly concrete or silica sandinstead of a storage fluid. Hightemperature fluid flows into in the tank from the top, all the way down through to the
bottom and cools. It creates two different temperature regions from high to low,
between which there is a space called temperature gradient or thermocline. When the
stored-up thermal energy is needed, the flow reverses taking up the heat on its way up.
Buoyancy effects make sure that hot, less dense materials stay on top of cool, dense
materials at the bottom, creating thermal stratification of the fluid.
Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico has tested a 2.5 MWhr, backed-bed
thermocline storage system with binary molten-salt fluid, and quartzite rock and sand
for the filler material. The cost for a TSE system is reduced substantially by replacing
most of the storage fluid and cheap filling material for the tank.
Although these above-mentioned systems are very reliable technically, they still pose a
high overall cost. Other concepts for a cheaper cost are being explored and investigated
too. Some research is under way to find more efficient and less costly filler materials for
the one-tank system which possesses high potentiality for cost reduction.
Phase-Change Materials
Although using concrete as the filler materials is very cost efficient(it is much cheaper to
hold the same amount of energy than molten salt), easy to handle and has higher
strength, it faces problems such as maintaining good contact between the concrete and
pipelines and low efficiency of heat transfer from the concrete to the HTF.
The HTF flows downward when charging (melting the PCMs) and upward when
discharging providing heat to generate steam (solidifying the PCMs). Current researches
propose nitrate/nitrite salts and eutectic mixtures of these salts, such as lithium nitrate
and potassium nitrate as the PCMs for HTLHTES, for their enthalpy and economic
feasibility.
Despite its encouraging prospect, however, PCMs is challenged by the complexity of the
system itself, unstable lifespan of the PCMs and low heat conductivity. Researchers are
looking for other material sources that possess more sufficient heat of fusion,
corrosiveness and high heat conductivity (at least 2 W/(m K)). Or it can also be
improved by developing proper heat transfer techniques to offset the low conductivity
of PCMs. ,
Michels, H., Pitz-Paal, R., Cascaded Latent Heat Storage For Parabolic
Trough Solar Power Plants Solar Energy 81 (2007) 829837
Guo, C., Zhang, W. Numerical simulation and parametric study on
new type of high temperature latent heat thermal energy storage
system Energy Conversion and Management Volume 49, Issue
5, May 2008, Pg 919-927
Michels, H., Pitz-Paal, R., Cascaded Latent Heat Storage For Parabolic
Trough Solar Power Plants Solar Energy 81 (2007) 829837
Guo, C., Zhang, W. Numerical simulation and parametric study on
new type of high temperature latent heat thermal energy storage
system Energy Conversion and Management Volume 49, Issue
5, May 2008, Pg 919-927
Solar Storage And Research Development, U.S Department of
Energy Efficiency and Renewable
Energyhttp://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/thermal_storage_rn
d.html#storage_systems
Solar Power; Sunny Future For Parabolics In Granada And
Nevada Modern Power System February 14, 2007
National solar thermal testing facilities Sandia National
Laboratorieshttp://www.sandia.gov/Renewable_Energy/solarth
ermal/NSTTF/salt.htm
Taggard, S., Parabolic troughs: CSPs quiet achieverRenewable
Energy Focus Volume 9, Issue 2, March-April 2008, Pages 46-48,
50
Parabolic Trough Thermal Energy Storage TechnologyNREL
http://www.nrel.gov/csp/troughnet/thermal_energy_storage.
html#direct
Thermal Storage U.S Department of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable
Energyhttp://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/thermal_storage.ht
ml
Stine, W.B., Harrigan, R.W. an online update version of the book
"Power From The
Sun"http://www.powerfromthesun.net/Chapter11/Chapter11.
htm