Thermoeconomic Optimization of Solar Thermal Power Plants with Storage in High-penetration Renewable Electricity Markets

Unlike most of renewable energy technologies, solar thermal power plants with integrated thermal energy storage are able to store heat from the sun and thereby supply electricity whenever it is needed to meet the demand. This attribute makes concentrating solar power ideally suited to compensate for fluctuations in other renewable energy sources. In order to analyze this market role, three scenarios were modeled, with low, medium and high penetrations of non-dispatchable renewables (i.e. wind and solar photovoltaics). The demand that cannot be met by these variable sources is met by a solar thermal power plant with heat provided either by a solar field and storage system or a back-up gas burner. For each scenario, the size of the solar field and storage were varied in order to show the trade-off between the levelized generation costs of the system, the annual specific CO2 emissions and the share of renewable electricity generation. The results show that, regardless of the scenario, there exist optimum plant configurations with viable costs whilst simultaneously ensuring a considerable reduction in CO2 emissions. Furthermore, it is shown that the limited flexibility of the power block prevents the system from reaching higher levels of sustainability. Lastly, the results were compared with an equivalent combined cycle power plant, showing that solutions involving solar thermal power can be justified in environmental terms only if large storage units are integrated into the plants.