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This research work presents the assessment of the impact of the solar irradiation, the distance from the coast, and the altitude of the location for a Concentrated Solar Power + Photovoltaic + Multi-Effect Distillation (CSP + PV + MED) plant for simultaneous power generation and seawater desalination. For that, a comparative analysis of the thermoeconomic cost of electricity and water (TCE and TCW) at different locations is carried out to determine the most competitive sites where this kind of cogeneration plant can be deployed. Also, multi-objective optimization is performed to assess the optimum sizing that allows reducing the costs. The study considers four Direct Normal Irradiation (DNI) levels (from 2000 to 3500 kWh/m2-yr), six distances from the sea (from 5 to 100 km), and six altitudes (from 20 to 1000 m.a.s.l.). The results show that solar irradiation has the most significant effect on the TCE and TCW, the distance to the sea affects the TCW considerably, and the altitude has a moderate impact despite its impact is substantially lower than the other two factors. Also, cost maps of the TCE and TCW giving insights about which locations have a higher potential for developing CSP + PV + MED plants are presented. From these maps, it has been found that the potential inland locations to reach TCE and TCW under 100 $/MWh and TCW 2 $/m3 should have high DNI (at least 300 kWh/m2-yr above the coast level), distances from the coast up to 60 km, and altitudes up to 750–1000 m.

A detailed exergy cost and thermoeconomic analysis applied to a Rankine Cycle (RC) coupled to a Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) plant was performed. The aim of this work is to identify the impact of design and operating conditions on the exergy and thermoeconomic costs of the final products, electricity, and freshwater, and to assess the distribution of the destroyed exergy, the fuel, and the plant costs. The plant model considers a high disaggregation model, which includes MED plant and condenser parasitic losses, a seawater pumping system and a brine energy recovery system. It also considers solar molten salts as the RC fuel, which is the typical fluid used in solar tower plants. The impact of RC + MED plant part-load operation, ambient temperature, MED plant size, and location plant’s altitude was evaluated and an analysis of operational day of the RC + MED plant was carried out. Results indicate that the plant part-load operation has a significant influence on the unit exergy and thermoeconomic product costs, while the ambient temperature evidences only a minor effect on the water costs. As well, the largest MED plant sizes (above 50,000 m3/day) offer the lowest electric and water costs, while the altitude strongly increases the water costs.

Concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies have been developed over the past four decades for commercial operation, establishing them as reliable power generation sources in regions with high direct solar irradiance. The sizing of the solar field, thermal energy storage systems, and power block enables CSP plants to operate under various operating conditions, while also exhibiting capabilities to generate multiple products such as electricity, heat, desalination, and cooling. The limitations of CSP systems can be reduced by utilizing the positive traits of other technologies, thus resulting in hybrid plant configurations that can fully exploit different technology strengths while minimizing their individual weaknesses. This review presents the state of the art on CSP stand‐alone plants for both power generation and combined generation of different products. Subsequently, the characteristics of CSP plants hybridized with photovoltaics, wind, fossil fuels, and biomass systems are discussed for both power multiple‐product generation. The review of assessment methodologies provides suggestions for both assessment and performance analysis and comparison with other generation technologies. This review shows that hybrid CSP plants have clear advantages in terms of cost, flexibility of operation, adaptability, and capability for the multigeneration of different products compared with stand‐alone plants used to generate each product individually. Hybrid CSP plants have advantages and can be designed to satisfy multiple demands on a case‐by‐case basis and are valid alternatives to combinations of stand‐alone plants. This article is categorized under: Concentrating Solar Power > Systems and Infrastructure

Chile presents a combination of favorable climatic conditions which result in the highest levels of solar irradiation in the world. In this paper, the performance of a hybrid CSP + PV plant at utility-scale integrated with a large-scale Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) located in northern Chile was studied. The model considered a solar power tower integrated with a two-tank molten salt direct TES and a fixed-angle PV plant coupled to a BESS to deliver a baseload of 100 MWe. A parametric analysis was carried out in terms of the PV size, solar multiple, TES hours capacity, and BESS size. The hybrid plant performance was studied in terms of the LCOE and the capacity factor. The minimum LCOE configurations were identified and a sensibility analysis was carried out to evaluate the effect of a cost reduction of the BESS in the hybrid plant configuration for different BESS sizes. Results showed that current investment costs of the storage section of the BESS make unprofitable its integration to the hybrid plant, so, it is required a reduction of approximately 60–90% of the storage cost (based on a reference value of 300 USD/kWh) to achieve competitive LCOEs in comparison to those obtained for a hybrid plant without BESS. Under this BESS cost reduction scenario, it was found a solutions domain with different hybrid plant configurations, which allow to integrate and complement the production of both CSP and PV plants with both storage types in a synergetic operation. Also, a comparative study evaluating the differences between implementing a fixed-tilt PV configuration or a one-axis tracking system in the hybrid plant scheme was carried out, obtaining that the annual production of the hybrid plant increases by no more than 5% with the tracking system, while the LCOE is reduced up to -1.98% due to a decrease of the BESS participation in the total output. These results indicate that the minimum LCOE configurations of a hybrid CSP + PV plant with tracked PV arrays (given a BESS size) could result in smaller PV plants, since the PV production increases in comparison to that with a fixed-tilt PV configuration.

This study presents a comprehensive analysis evaluating the impact of the dispatch strategy on the optimal design configurations of different combinations of solar power plants with storage. The analysis considers four dispatch profiles (baseload, daylight, night, and daylight and evening), and four technology combinations including a solar PV plant with batteries, a CSP plant with Thermal Storage (TES), a hybrid CSP-PV plant with TES, and a hybrid CSP-PV plant with TES and batteries. Two locations with high and moderate levels of DNI were selected and cost scenarios for 2020 and 2030 were considered. The aim is to determine the competitiveness ranges of each technology combination and establishing the least-cost technological option that allows meeting a dispatch strategy with a certain level of supply guarantee. A multi-objective optimization approach was followed to obtain the trade-off curves that minimize the LCOE and maximize the sufficiency factor in terms of the nominal size of the PV plant, solar multiple, TES size, batteries capacity, and inverter power rate. Results of this work allow determining the influence of the dispatch strategy on the competitiveness of these storage-integrated technology options, giving relevant information concerning under which conditions one technology combination is preferable over another.

This work presents a dispatch optimizer algorithm that seeks to maximize the revenues of a CSP plant by selling electricity to the grid for a case study in Chile. The model comprehends a mixed-integer programming problem in which the operation and performance of the plant are represented by the physics and energy balances of the system. The analysis was applied using meteorological and electrical prices data of Crucero and Polpaico located in northern and central region of Chile, respectively, to couple a perfect forecast of weather and market conditions to the model. Results indicate that it is possible to determine best configurations for CSP plants in terms of solar field size and thermal storage under given electric prices conditions that result in better trade-offs between investment and profits of the plant. In this way, this work also demonstrates the importance of coupling optimized dispatch strategies with financial models, suggesting also that CSP developers could implement these type of optimizers with price forecasting models to evaluate the profitability and viability of their business models.

This study presents a performance analysis of a Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plant coupled to a Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) unit with an Air-Cooled Condenser (ACC) as the MED last condenser (configuration named as MED- ACC) to evaluate the advantage of this integration in comparison to the typical once-through condenser (configuration named as MED-OTC). The analysis has been performed for Crucero, Chile, which is located 100 km far from the coast and 1000 m above sea level. Thus, a seawater pumping system and energy recovery of the brine disposal are considered. The design of the MED-ACC plant has been carried out in terms of the ACC temperature limitations, and the simulation of both configurations has been performed on an hourly basis. Results obtained in the design show that configuration MED- ACC requires a lower number of effects than the MED-OTC configuration, which reduces the capacity and efficiency of the MED plant. A significant advantage of the former configuration is the reduction in the MED electric consumption with respect that of the latter configuration. Regarding annual performance results, it was found that the net electric output of the MED-ACC plant was 14% higher than the MED-OTC plant due to the seawater pumping consumption reduction, while the water production was 43% lower, despite the water capacity factor of both configurations remained similar.

A detailed annual performance and thermoeconomic analysis of a Concentrated Solar Power plant coupled to a Photovoltaic and a Multi-Effect Distillation plants (CSP + PV + MED) were performed using an extensive methodology based on an hourly simulation. The aim was to assess the impact of the PV integration into the CSP + PV plant and to evaluate the sizing of the plant in terms of the design parameters (PV plant size, solar multiple, Thermal Energy Storage capacity, and numbers of MED units) that allow achieving the lowest thermoeconomic electric and water costs (TCE and TCW). Results show that PV integration mainly increases the electric output but could increase the water production depending on the PV and CSP plants’ sizes. Moreover, the PV plant cost is mainly allocated to electricity, decreasing the TCE, while on the TCW it has a moderate impact. Finally, it was found that the PV plant and the CSP plant size has contradictory roles between the costs, where the minimum TCE is obtained for large PV plant with an undersized CSP plant and one MED unit, and the minimum TCW is obtained for small PV plant with an oversized CSP plant and a large MED plant (5 units).