Thermal Energy Storage in Concentrating Solar Power Plants: A Review of European and North American R&D Projects

Thermal energy storage (TES) is the most suitable solution found to improve the concentrating solar power (CSP) plant’s dispatchability. Molten salts used as sensible heat storage (SHS) are the most widespread TES medium. However, novel and promising TES materials can be implemented into CSP plants...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energies (Basel) 2022-11, Vol.15 (22), p.8570
Main Authors: Pascual, Sara, Lisbona, Pilar, Romeo, Luis M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alternative energy sources
Bibliometrics
Configurations
Design and construction
Electric power generation
Electricity
Energy storage
Green technology
Heat
Heat storage
High temperature
Industrial plant emissions
Methods
Molten salts
Power plants
R&D
Radiation
Renewable resources
Research & development
Sensible heat
Solar collectors
Solar energy
Solar power
Solar power plants
Storage capacity
Technology assessment
Thermal energy
Trends
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Summary:Thermal energy storage (TES) is the most suitable solution found to improve the concentrating solar power (CSP) plant’s dispatchability. Molten salts used as sensible heat storage (SHS) are the most widespread TES medium. However, novel and promising TES materials can be implemented into CSP plants within different configurations, minimizing the TES costs and increasing the working temperature to improve the thermal performance of the associated power block. The first objective of this review is to provide an overview of the most widespread CSP technologies, TES technologies and TES-CSP configurations within the currently operational facilities. Once this information has been compiled, the second aim is to collect and present the existing European and North American TES-CSP Research and Development (R&D) projects within the last decade (2011–2021). Data related to these projects such as TES-CSP configuration path, TES and CSP technologies applied, storage capacity, power block associated and the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of the commercial up-scaling project are presented. In addition, project information such as location, research period, project leader and budget granted are also extracted. A timeline of the R&D projects launched from 2011 is built, showing the technology readiness level (TRL) achieved by the end of the project.
ISSN:1996-1073
1996-1073
DOI:10.3390/en15228570