Simulation and Lessons Learned from the Ivanpah Solar Plant Project.

The Ivanpah CSP plant is studied herein. Ivanpah's Tower 1 central collector was simulated using the NREL SAM software toolkit. Input parameters for the Ivanpah CSP was found via public domain websites regarding Ivanpah. Outputs from NREL SAM were compared to hand calculated values and available data from the actual output of Ivanpah. Solar Irradiation data was used from the National Solar Radiation. The solar insolation data was taken for the year 2015 in which there is data available for the energy production from Ivanpah. The actual total output from Ivanpah 1 during 2015 was 209,975,000 kWh. It is published that Ivanpah underproduced significantly in 2015 meaning that calculated values are drastically greater than the data given. The simulations herein show that NREL SAM gave an annual output of 292,469,024 kWh and hand calculations gave an output of 318,414,566 kWh. The paper concludes with a section on lessons learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]