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5. Thermodynamic and Economic Study 395

Table 12.5 Examples of Thermal Energy Storage Costs
Heat Capital
Storage Transfer Costs
Type Configuration Material Fluid DT(K) ($/kWh th )
Sensible Two-tank Molten salt Same as 300 28.21
storage
material
Sensible Two-tank Liquid Same as 300 48.48
sodium storage
material
Sensible Thermocline Quartz/ Molten salt 300 20.26
sand (solar salt)
Latent EPCM Chloride Air 300 19.74
salt
Latent Coil-in-tank Carbonate SCO 2 or liquid 300 21
salt sodium
From M. Liu, N.H. Steven Tay, S. Bell, M. Belusko, R. Jacob, G. Will, W. Saman, F. Bruno, Review on
concentrating solar power plants and new developments in high temperature thermal energy storage
technologies, Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 53 (2016) 1411e1432.
Research studies and more detailed engineering works can often be carried out
Ò
with tools such as Matlab /Simulink, Modelica, or Visual Basic. Specific compo-
nents may require the use of specific finite element method software such as
ANSYS-Fluent. ASPEN PLUS, APROS, or DYMOLA (Modelica) has been widely
used for modeling and simulation of complete solar plants, storage included,
because of the flexibility of their component libraries and the possibility to integrate
detailed control systems. 21,22

5. THERMODYNAMIC AND ECONOMIC STUDY
To evaluate a 3-MW parabolic trough power plant using an ORC, a thermodynamic
and an economic study were carried out.
The primary system evaluated is an ORC, constituted by its main components:
pump, evaporator, turbine, and condenser, as shown in Fig. 12.14. The working fluid
is saturated at the outlet of the condenser (3e4), then is compressed by the pump
(4e1), flows to the evaporator, where it receives heat from the solar source until
reaching saturated vapor (2e22), and is finally expanded in the turbine for the gen-
eration of useful work (22e3).
The solar energy system is constituted of a set of parabolic cylindrical collectors
that receive solar radiation and uses it to heat an HTF that circulates within a system in

21
See footnote 9.
22
F. Alobaid, N. Mertens, R. Starkloff, T. Lanz, C. Heinze, B. Epple, Progress in dynamic simulation of
thermal power plants, Prog. Energy Combust. Sci. 59 (2017) 79e162.