An Indirect Air Cooling System with Compound Refrigerating Cycle for CSP Plants

The geographical contradictions between plenty of water and high solar radiation constitute are hindering the development of concentrated solar power (CSP) plants, dry cooling systems are compelled to adopt to solve the contradictions for the CSP plants. This paper analysis the feasibility of a novel indirect air cooling with compound refrigerating cycle (CRC-IAC) system used in CSP plants. The solar field and power block in the analysis are modeled using NREL’s Solar Advisor Model (SAM), excluding heat rejection system. Thermodynamic simulations and optimizations for operation exhaust pressure with the changes of ambient dry-bulb temperature are presented. The ideal cycle performance for CRC-IAC system is evaluated and quantified. Moreover, the system was compared with circulating wet cooling (CWC) and air cooling condenser (ACC) in terms of electricity generation and levelized electricity cost (LEC). The results show that the LEC of CRC-IAC is increased by 6.44% and reduced by 5.38%.