Case Studies and Parametric Analysis of Heliostat Performance With a Tradeoff-Informed Technoeconomic Analysis Metric: Article No. 061008

Alexander Zolan, Chad Augustine, Kenneth Armijo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The Heliostat Consortium (HelioCon) was launched in 2021 to advance heliostat technology. This work presents a collection of baseline case studies for the technoeconomic analysis (TEA) of candidate heliostat improvements for concentrating solar power (CSP) and concentrated solar thermal (CST) systems that employ central receivers. The case studies we develop include a large-scale CSP plant, a smaller, modular CSP plant, and a small CST plant used for industrial process heat. In this work, we also propose a novel metric for TEA of a plant component technology that recasts relative changes in levelized system costs into component-specific capital cost budgets. This measure, which we refer to as the equivalent breakeven installed cost, is the maximum budget for the technology component that leads to improved levelized costs. Finally, we perform a parametric analysis to show the impact of candidate technologies on the levelized cost of heat and, by extension, equivalent breakeven installed cost.
Original languageAmerican English
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Solar Energy Engineering, Transactions of the ASME
Volume146
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2024

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/JA-5700-87127

Keywords

  • clean energy
  • optics
  • solar thermal power
  • solar tower
  • system

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Case Studies and Parametric Analysis of Heliostat Performance With a Tradeoff-Informed Technoeconomic Analysis Metric: Article No. 061008'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this