Life Cycle Assessment of a Parabolic Trough Concentrating Solar Power Plant and Impacts of Key Design Alternatives: Preprint

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaper

Abstract

Climate change and water scarcity are important issues for today's power sector. To inform capacity expansion decisions, hybrid life cycle assessment is used to evaluate a reference design of a parabolic trough concentrating solar power (CSP) facility located in Daggett, California, along four sustainability metrics: life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water consumption, cumulative energydemand (CED), and energy payback time (EPBT). This wet-cooled, 103 MW plant utilizes mined nitrate salts in its two-tank, thermal energy storage (TES) system. Design alternatives of dry-cooling, a thermocline TES, and synthetically-derived nitrate salt are evaluated. During its life cycle, the reference CSP plant is estimated to emit 26 g CO2eq per kWh, consume 4.7 L/kWh of water, and demand 0.40 MJeq/kWh of energy, resulting in an EPBT of approximately 1 year. The dry-cooled alternative is estimated to reduce life cycle water consumption by 77% but increase life cycle GHG emissions and CED by 8%. Synthetic nitrate salts may increase life cycle GHG emissions by 52% compared to mined. Switching from two-tank to thermocline TES configuration reduces life cycle GHG emissions, mostsignificantly for plants using synthetically-derived nitrate salts. CSP can significantly reduce GHG emissions compared to fossil-fueled generation; however, dry-cooling may be required in many locations to minimize water consumption.
Original languageAmerican English
Number of pages11
StatePublished - 2011
EventSolarPACES 2011 - Granada, Spain
Duration: 20 Sep 201123 Sep 2011

Conference

ConferenceSolarPACES 2011
CityGranada, Spain
Period20/09/1123/09/11

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/CP-6A20-52186

Keywords

  • energy payback
  • EPBT
  • GHG
  • greenhouse gases (GHG)
  • LCA
  • water consumption

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