The Experts below are selected from a list of 192945 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Robert Pitz-paal - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Evaluating the Potential Benefit of Using Nowcasting Systems to Improve the Yield of Parabolic Trough Power Plants with Single-Phase HTF
Energies, 2021Co-Authors: Kareem Noureldin, Tobias Hirsch, Bijan Nouri, Zeyad Yasser, Robert Pitz-paalAbstract:Solar Field developers include innovative solutions to optimize the energy production of their plants. Simulation tools play a significant role in the design and testing phases as they provide estimations of this yield in different conditions. Transient processes, like passing clouds and Solar Field start-up, are specifically challenging to optimize and estimate using such simulation tools. Solar Fields are subject to high degree of both temporal and spatial variability in the energy input and a detailed estimation can be achieved by simulating subsystems within acceptable time and computational power. Hence, such simulation tools cannot be utilized for tests under realistic operation conditions. The Virtual Solar Field is a computationally efficient simulation tool that allows a detailed transient simulation of parabolic trough Solar Fields based on single-phase fluids. Using this tool, developers could reproduce a transient test case with exactly the same disturbances to provide fair comparisons between different configurations. In this paper, an evaluation process based on numerical simulations using the Virtual Solar Field is presented. The economic benefit of novel innovative control concepts can be assessed according to the presented scheme. This is demonstrated by evaluating the potential benefit of availability of spatial DNI nowcasts on the control of parabolic trough Solar Fields. Results show that nowcasting can increase the economic revenue of commercial power plants by up to 2.5% per day. This proves the feasibility of installing such systems.
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Modelling an Automatic Controller for Parabolic Trough Solar Fields under Realistic Weather Conditions
2018Co-Authors: Kareem Noureldin, Tobias Hirsch, Bijan Nouri, Zeyad Yasser, Pascal Moritz Kuhn, Robert Pitz-paalAbstract:Controlling parabolic trough Solar thermal power plants during transient events, such as passing clouds, is challenging for the power plant operators. Solar Field controllers try to operate the Field with the suitable fluid mass flow to reduce any waste of Solar irradiation under very different weather and operational conditions. However, finding the optimal operation trajectory is not possible or guaranteed due to the lack of information about many influencing parameters in the Solar Field including, for example, effect of spatial variation of irradiance and flow maldistribution in the Field. In this paper, the in-house transient simulation tool, the Virtual Solar Field (VSF) is used to test full-sized Solar power plants under realistic weather conditions. Automatic Field controllers have been developed with the help of our industrial partners to act as reference for further developments in Field control. Thus, the VSF can estimate the potential benefit of advanced controllers using, for instance, nowcasting systems provided by cloud cameras, as well as loop control valves to manipulate the flow control in individual loops. It is shown how the VSF can act as a platform to test different control strategies and provide assessments of the detailed performance of the controller with different control components. The implemented automatic Field controllers proved to be robust for different irradiance types and, hence, can be used as basis for further analysis. In addition, the controller can be instructed to dump some of the incident Solar energy through defocusing in cases when the available Solar energy is higher than the energy consumption by the power block and storage. In summary, VSF allows the developers of Solar Field controllers to test their implementations under different weather conditions and provide accurate assessment without disturbing power plant operation and before investing in new technologies, for instance nowcasting systems.
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Virtual Solar Field - An opportunity to optimize transient processes in line-focus CSP power plants
2017Co-Authors: Kareem Noureldin, Tobias Hirsch, Robert Pitz-paalAbstract:Optimizing Solar Field operation and control is a key factor to improve the competitiveness of line-focus Solar thermal power plants. However, the risks of assessing new and innovative control strategies on operational power plants hinder such optimizations and result in applying more conservative control schemes. In this paper, we describe some applications for a whole Solar Field transient in-house simulation tool developed at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), the Virtual Solar Field (VSF).\ud The tool offers a virtual platform to simulate real Solar Fields while coupling the thermal and hydraulic conditions of the Field with high computational efficiency. Using the tool, developers and operator can probe their control strategies and assess the potential benefits while avoiding the high risks and costs. In this paper, we study the benefits gained from controlling the loop valves and\ud of using direct normal irradiance maps and forecasts for the Field control. Loop valve control is interesting for many Solar Field operators since it provides a high degree of flexibility to the control of the Solar Field through regulating the flow rate in each loop. This improves the reaction to transient condition, such as passing clouds and Field start-up in the morning. Nevertheless, due to the large number of loops and the sensitivity of the Field control to the valve settings, this process needs to be automated and the\ud effect of changing the setting of each valve on the whole Field control needs to be taken into account. We used VSF to implement simple control algorithms to control the loop valves and to study the benefits that could be gained from using active loop valve control during transient conditions. Secondly, we study how using short-term highly spatially-resolved DNI forecasts provided by cloud cameras could improve the plant energy yield. Both cases show an improvement in the plant efficiency and outlet temperature\ud stability. This paves the road for further investigations of new control strategies or for optimizations of the currently implemented ones
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Virtual Solar Field - Validation of a detailed transient simulation tool for line focus STE Fields with single phase heat transfer fluid
Solar Energy, 2017Co-Authors: Kareem Noureldin, Tobias Hirsch, Robert Pitz-paalAbstract:Abstract Simulation models enable designers and operators to test different settings of the real systems while avoiding the large costs associated with experimental or practical systems. However, creating models that resemble the real physical system with acceptable accuracy and computational time remains a challenge for developers of such tools. With this motivation, a new simulation tool, the Virtual Solar Field (VSF), has been developed for line-focus power plants with single-phase heat transfer fluid (HTF) to assist in plant control during transient processes. VSF is a whole-Field model based on an efficient coupling of hydraulic and thermal solvers that take into account the flow distribution in the parallel loops, as well as the transient conditions in the Field. In this paper, some validation cases for VSF using data from Andasol-3 power plant are shown. Five test cases are examined, which include normal operation, start-up and evening operation during clear-sky and strong transients. The results show very good agreement with the real plant and some discrepancies are discussed and studied. The main sources of discrepancies are associated with difficulties in modelling all fine details of reality using the current technologies in some commercial power plants. For example, small cloud passage are not detected by the few weather stations in the power plant, as well as knowing the exact loop valve settings is not possible in Andasol-3. In addition, an overview of the potential applications of VSF are mentioned and briefly discussed. VSF offers a suitable platform for testing novel control strategies and assessing the performance of the Solar Fields.
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Economic Potential of Innovative Receiver Concepts With Different Solar Field Configurations for Supercritical Steam Cycles
Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, 2013Co-Authors: Cs. Singer, Robert Pitz-paal, Reiner Buck, Hans Müller-steinhagenAbstract:The cost reduction potential of Solar power towers (SPT) is an important issue concerning its market introduction. Raising the steam process temperature and pressure can lead to a cost reduction due to increased overall plant efficiency. Thus, for new receiver configurations, a supercritical steam cycle operated at 300 bar/600 °C/610 °C live steam conditions was assumed. The considered systems include innovative direct absorption receivers, either with conventional or beam down heliostat Field layouts. For the beam down option, the receiver is assumed to be a cylindrical vessel with a flow-through porous absorber structure at the internal lateral area of the cylinder. The direct absorption receiver option consists of a cylindrical barrel with downwards oriented aperture, whose absorber structure at the internal lateral area is cooled by a molten salt film. For the assessment, CFD based methods are developed and able to examine the receiver efficiency characteristics. Based on the receiver thermal efficiency characteristics and the Solar Field characteristics, the annual performance is evaluated using hourly time series. The assessment methodology is based on the European Concentrated Solar Thermal Roadmap (ECOSTAR) study and enables the prediction of the annual performance and the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). Applying appropriate cost assumptions from literature, the LCOE are estimated for each considered SPT concept and compared to tubular receiver concepts with molten salt and liquid metal cooling. The power level of the compared concepts and the reference case is 200 MWel. The sensitivity of the specific cost assumptions is analyzed. No detailed evaluation is done for the thermal storage, but comparable storage utilization and costs are assumed for all cases. At optimized plant parameters, the results indicate a LCOE reduction potential of up to 0.5% for beam down and of up to 7.2% for the direct absorption receiver compared to today's state of the art molten salt Solar tower technology.
Kareem Noureldin - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Evaluating the Potential Benefit of Using Nowcasting Systems to Improve the Yield of Parabolic Trough Power Plants with Single-Phase HTF
Energies, 2021Co-Authors: Kareem Noureldin, Tobias Hirsch, Bijan Nouri, Zeyad Yasser, Robert Pitz-paalAbstract:Solar Field developers include innovative solutions to optimize the energy production of their plants. Simulation tools play a significant role in the design and testing phases as they provide estimations of this yield in different conditions. Transient processes, like passing clouds and Solar Field start-up, are specifically challenging to optimize and estimate using such simulation tools. Solar Fields are subject to high degree of both temporal and spatial variability in the energy input and a detailed estimation can be achieved by simulating subsystems within acceptable time and computational power. Hence, such simulation tools cannot be utilized for tests under realistic operation conditions. The Virtual Solar Field is a computationally efficient simulation tool that allows a detailed transient simulation of parabolic trough Solar Fields based on single-phase fluids. Using this tool, developers could reproduce a transient test case with exactly the same disturbances to provide fair comparisons between different configurations. In this paper, an evaluation process based on numerical simulations using the Virtual Solar Field is presented. The economic benefit of novel innovative control concepts can be assessed according to the presented scheme. This is demonstrated by evaluating the potential benefit of availability of spatial DNI nowcasts on the control of parabolic trough Solar Fields. Results show that nowcasting can increase the economic revenue of commercial power plants by up to 2.5% per day. This proves the feasibility of installing such systems.
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Simulation of potential enhancements in parabolic trough Solar Field start-up controllers using nowcasting systems
SOLARPACES 2018: International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems, 2019Co-Authors: Kareem Noureldin, Tobias Hirsch, Bijan Nouri, Zeyad YasserAbstract:The yield of Solar thermal power plants is strongly affected by disturbances in the irradiation condition through passing clouds. This effect is even more prominent when the clouds shade the Solar Field only partially as the irradiance situation cannot be fully measured by few measurement points in the Field. In this paper, the benefit of using nowcasting systems to produce highly resolved irradiance maps on the Field during start-up is studied. A simulation tool is used to dynamically model all the loops and piping in a reference commercial Solar Field. Automatic Solar Field controllers allow the model to operate during different situations. The performance of the Field under a reference state-of-the-art controller is compared against a controller using the irradiance maps from nowcasting systems. The benefit during start-up processes is found to be significantly lower than the benefit the system makes during normal Solar Field operation. However, there is more potential shown for more advanced controllers, like model-predictive control.
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Modelling an Automatic Controller for Parabolic Trough Solar Fields under Realistic Weather Conditions
2018Co-Authors: Kareem Noureldin, Tobias Hirsch, Bijan Nouri, Zeyad Yasser, Pascal Moritz Kuhn, Robert Pitz-paalAbstract:Controlling parabolic trough Solar thermal power plants during transient events, such as passing clouds, is challenging for the power plant operators. Solar Field controllers try to operate the Field with the suitable fluid mass flow to reduce any waste of Solar irradiation under very different weather and operational conditions. However, finding the optimal operation trajectory is not possible or guaranteed due to the lack of information about many influencing parameters in the Solar Field including, for example, effect of spatial variation of irradiance and flow maldistribution in the Field. In this paper, the in-house transient simulation tool, the Virtual Solar Field (VSF) is used to test full-sized Solar power plants under realistic weather conditions. Automatic Field controllers have been developed with the help of our industrial partners to act as reference for further developments in Field control. Thus, the VSF can estimate the potential benefit of advanced controllers using, for instance, nowcasting systems provided by cloud cameras, as well as loop control valves to manipulate the flow control in individual loops. It is shown how the VSF can act as a platform to test different control strategies and provide assessments of the detailed performance of the controller with different control components. The implemented automatic Field controllers proved to be robust for different irradiance types and, hence, can be used as basis for further analysis. In addition, the controller can be instructed to dump some of the incident Solar energy through defocusing in cases when the available Solar energy is higher than the energy consumption by the power block and storage. In summary, VSF allows the developers of Solar Field controllers to test their implementations under different weather conditions and provide accurate assessment without disturbing power plant operation and before investing in new technologies, for instance nowcasting systems.
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Virtual Solar Field - An opportunity to optimize transient processes in line-focus CSP power plants
2017Co-Authors: Kareem Noureldin, Tobias Hirsch, Robert Pitz-paalAbstract:Optimizing Solar Field operation and control is a key factor to improve the competitiveness of line-focus Solar thermal power plants. However, the risks of assessing new and innovative control strategies on operational power plants hinder such optimizations and result in applying more conservative control schemes. In this paper, we describe some applications for a whole Solar Field transient in-house simulation tool developed at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), the Virtual Solar Field (VSF).\ud The tool offers a virtual platform to simulate real Solar Fields while coupling the thermal and hydraulic conditions of the Field with high computational efficiency. Using the tool, developers and operator can probe their control strategies and assess the potential benefits while avoiding the high risks and costs. In this paper, we study the benefits gained from controlling the loop valves and\ud of using direct normal irradiance maps and forecasts for the Field control. Loop valve control is interesting for many Solar Field operators since it provides a high degree of flexibility to the control of the Solar Field through regulating the flow rate in each loop. This improves the reaction to transient condition, such as passing clouds and Field start-up in the morning. Nevertheless, due to the large number of loops and the sensitivity of the Field control to the valve settings, this process needs to be automated and the\ud effect of changing the setting of each valve on the whole Field control needs to be taken into account. We used VSF to implement simple control algorithms to control the loop valves and to study the benefits that could be gained from using active loop valve control during transient conditions. Secondly, we study how using short-term highly spatially-resolved DNI forecasts provided by cloud cameras could improve the plant energy yield. Both cases show an improvement in the plant efficiency and outlet temperature\ud stability. This paves the road for further investigations of new control strategies or for optimizations of the currently implemented ones
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Virtual Solar Field - Validation of a detailed transient simulation tool for line focus STE Fields with single phase heat transfer fluid
Solar Energy, 2017Co-Authors: Kareem Noureldin, Tobias Hirsch, Robert Pitz-paalAbstract:Abstract Simulation models enable designers and operators to test different settings of the real systems while avoiding the large costs associated with experimental or practical systems. However, creating models that resemble the real physical system with acceptable accuracy and computational time remains a challenge for developers of such tools. With this motivation, a new simulation tool, the Virtual Solar Field (VSF), has been developed for line-focus power plants with single-phase heat transfer fluid (HTF) to assist in plant control during transient processes. VSF is a whole-Field model based on an efficient coupling of hydraulic and thermal solvers that take into account the flow distribution in the parallel loops, as well as the transient conditions in the Field. In this paper, some validation cases for VSF using data from Andasol-3 power plant are shown. Five test cases are examined, which include normal operation, start-up and evening operation during clear-sky and strong transients. The results show very good agreement with the real plant and some discrepancies are discussed and studied. The main sources of discrepancies are associated with difficulties in modelling all fine details of reality using the current technologies in some commercial power plants. For example, small cloud passage are not detected by the few weather stations in the power plant, as well as knowing the exact loop valve settings is not possible in Andasol-3. In addition, an overview of the potential applications of VSF are mentioned and briefly discussed. VSF offers a suitable platform for testing novel control strategies and assessing the performance of the Solar Fields.
Manuel Ruiz De Adana - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Techno-Economic Assessment of Heat Transfer Fluid Buffering for Thermal Energy Storage in the Solar Field of Parabolic Trough Solar Thermal Power Plants
Energies, 2017Co-Authors: Jorge M. Llamas, David Bullejos, Manuel Ruiz De AdanaAbstract:Currently, operating parabolic trough (PT) Solar thermal power plants, either Solar-only or with thermal storage block, use the Solar Field as a heat transfer fluid (HTF) thermal storage system to provide extra thermal capacity when it is needed. This is done by circulating heat transfer fluid into the Solar Field piping in order to create a heat fluid buffer. In the same way, by oversizing the Solar Field, it can work as an alternative thermal energy storage (TES) system to the traditionally applied methods. This paper presents a Solar Field TES model for a standard Solar Field from a 50-MWe Solar power plant. An oversized Solar model is analyzed to increase the capacity storage system (HTF buffering). A mathematical model has been developed and different simulations have been carried out over a cycle of one year with six different Solar multiples considered to represent the different oversized Solar Field configurations. Annual electricity generation and levelized cost of energy (LCOE) are calculated to find the Solar multiple (SM) which makes the highest Solar Field thermal storage capacity possible within the minimum LCOE
Tobias Hirsch - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Evaluating the Potential Benefit of Using Nowcasting Systems to Improve the Yield of Parabolic Trough Power Plants with Single-Phase HTF
Energies, 2021Co-Authors: Kareem Noureldin, Tobias Hirsch, Bijan Nouri, Zeyad Yasser, Robert Pitz-paalAbstract:Solar Field developers include innovative solutions to optimize the energy production of their plants. Simulation tools play a significant role in the design and testing phases as they provide estimations of this yield in different conditions. Transient processes, like passing clouds and Solar Field start-up, are specifically challenging to optimize and estimate using such simulation tools. Solar Fields are subject to high degree of both temporal and spatial variability in the energy input and a detailed estimation can be achieved by simulating subsystems within acceptable time and computational power. Hence, such simulation tools cannot be utilized for tests under realistic operation conditions. The Virtual Solar Field is a computationally efficient simulation tool that allows a detailed transient simulation of parabolic trough Solar Fields based on single-phase fluids. Using this tool, developers could reproduce a transient test case with exactly the same disturbances to provide fair comparisons between different configurations. In this paper, an evaluation process based on numerical simulations using the Virtual Solar Field is presented. The economic benefit of novel innovative control concepts can be assessed according to the presented scheme. This is demonstrated by evaluating the potential benefit of availability of spatial DNI nowcasts on the control of parabolic trough Solar Fields. Results show that nowcasting can increase the economic revenue of commercial power plants by up to 2.5% per day. This proves the feasibility of installing such systems.
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Simulation of potential enhancements in parabolic trough Solar Field start-up controllers using nowcasting systems
SOLARPACES 2018: International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems, 2019Co-Authors: Kareem Noureldin, Tobias Hirsch, Bijan Nouri, Zeyad YasserAbstract:The yield of Solar thermal power plants is strongly affected by disturbances in the irradiation condition through passing clouds. This effect is even more prominent when the clouds shade the Solar Field only partially as the irradiance situation cannot be fully measured by few measurement points in the Field. In this paper, the benefit of using nowcasting systems to produce highly resolved irradiance maps on the Field during start-up is studied. A simulation tool is used to dynamically model all the loops and piping in a reference commercial Solar Field. Automatic Solar Field controllers allow the model to operate during different situations. The performance of the Field under a reference state-of-the-art controller is compared against a controller using the irradiance maps from nowcasting systems. The benefit during start-up processes is found to be significantly lower than the benefit the system makes during normal Solar Field operation. However, there is more potential shown for more advanced controllers, like model-predictive control.
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Modelling an Automatic Controller for Parabolic Trough Solar Fields under Realistic Weather Conditions
2018Co-Authors: Kareem Noureldin, Tobias Hirsch, Bijan Nouri, Zeyad Yasser, Pascal Moritz Kuhn, Robert Pitz-paalAbstract:Controlling parabolic trough Solar thermal power plants during transient events, such as passing clouds, is challenging for the power plant operators. Solar Field controllers try to operate the Field with the suitable fluid mass flow to reduce any waste of Solar irradiation under very different weather and operational conditions. However, finding the optimal operation trajectory is not possible or guaranteed due to the lack of information about many influencing parameters in the Solar Field including, for example, effect of spatial variation of irradiance and flow maldistribution in the Field. In this paper, the in-house transient simulation tool, the Virtual Solar Field (VSF) is used to test full-sized Solar power plants under realistic weather conditions. Automatic Field controllers have been developed with the help of our industrial partners to act as reference for further developments in Field control. Thus, the VSF can estimate the potential benefit of advanced controllers using, for instance, nowcasting systems provided by cloud cameras, as well as loop control valves to manipulate the flow control in individual loops. It is shown how the VSF can act as a platform to test different control strategies and provide assessments of the detailed performance of the controller with different control components. The implemented automatic Field controllers proved to be robust for different irradiance types and, hence, can be used as basis for further analysis. In addition, the controller can be instructed to dump some of the incident Solar energy through defocusing in cases when the available Solar energy is higher than the energy consumption by the power block and storage. In summary, VSF allows the developers of Solar Field controllers to test their implementations under different weather conditions and provide accurate assessment without disturbing power plant operation and before investing in new technologies, for instance nowcasting systems.
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Virtual Solar Field - An opportunity to optimize transient processes in line-focus CSP power plants
2017Co-Authors: Kareem Noureldin, Tobias Hirsch, Robert Pitz-paalAbstract:Optimizing Solar Field operation and control is a key factor to improve the competitiveness of line-focus Solar thermal power plants. However, the risks of assessing new and innovative control strategies on operational power plants hinder such optimizations and result in applying more conservative control schemes. In this paper, we describe some applications for a whole Solar Field transient in-house simulation tool developed at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), the Virtual Solar Field (VSF).\ud The tool offers a virtual platform to simulate real Solar Fields while coupling the thermal and hydraulic conditions of the Field with high computational efficiency. Using the tool, developers and operator can probe their control strategies and assess the potential benefits while avoiding the high risks and costs. In this paper, we study the benefits gained from controlling the loop valves and\ud of using direct normal irradiance maps and forecasts for the Field control. Loop valve control is interesting for many Solar Field operators since it provides a high degree of flexibility to the control of the Solar Field through regulating the flow rate in each loop. This improves the reaction to transient condition, such as passing clouds and Field start-up in the morning. Nevertheless, due to the large number of loops and the sensitivity of the Field control to the valve settings, this process needs to be automated and the\ud effect of changing the setting of each valve on the whole Field control needs to be taken into account. We used VSF to implement simple control algorithms to control the loop valves and to study the benefits that could be gained from using active loop valve control during transient conditions. Secondly, we study how using short-term highly spatially-resolved DNI forecasts provided by cloud cameras could improve the plant energy yield. Both cases show an improvement in the plant efficiency and outlet temperature\ud stability. This paves the road for further investigations of new control strategies or for optimizations of the currently implemented ones
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Virtual Solar Field - Validation of a detailed transient simulation tool for line focus STE Fields with single phase heat transfer fluid
Solar Energy, 2017Co-Authors: Kareem Noureldin, Tobias Hirsch, Robert Pitz-paalAbstract:Abstract Simulation models enable designers and operators to test different settings of the real systems while avoiding the large costs associated with experimental or practical systems. However, creating models that resemble the real physical system with acceptable accuracy and computational time remains a challenge for developers of such tools. With this motivation, a new simulation tool, the Virtual Solar Field (VSF), has been developed for line-focus power plants with single-phase heat transfer fluid (HTF) to assist in plant control during transient processes. VSF is a whole-Field model based on an efficient coupling of hydraulic and thermal solvers that take into account the flow distribution in the parallel loops, as well as the transient conditions in the Field. In this paper, some validation cases for VSF using data from Andasol-3 power plant are shown. Five test cases are examined, which include normal operation, start-up and evening operation during clear-sky and strong transients. The results show very good agreement with the real plant and some discrepancies are discussed and studied. The main sources of discrepancies are associated with difficulties in modelling all fine details of reality using the current technologies in some commercial power plants. For example, small cloud passage are not detected by the few weather stations in the power plant, as well as knowing the exact loop valve settings is not possible in Andasol-3. In addition, an overview of the potential applications of VSF are mentioned and briefly discussed. VSF offers a suitable platform for testing novel control strategies and assessing the performance of the Solar Fields.
Mehran Ameri - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Techno-economic analysis of using three Fresnel Solar Fields coupled to a thermal power plant for different cost of natural gas
Renewable Energy, 2020Co-Authors: Sadegh Khajepour, Mehran AmeriAbstract:Abstract In this paper, the effect of using three Solar Fields in a Solar thermal power plant has been evaluated. Two separate Solar direct steam generations are used to provide a portion of the energy required by the high-pressure turbine and low-pressure turbine. The third Solar Field is used for molten salt energy storage. If the energy stored during the daytime is not enough, the fossil fuel boiler will provide the rest of the energy needed. Given the current price of natural gas, the use of Solar energy is not cost-effective, regardless of environmental issues, government incentives or external costs, such as health costs. Furthermore, the use of Solar energy for the power plant was unable to make a significant reduction in electricity cost, regardless the 3.5$/MMBTU natural gas price. However, considering the complexity of the Solar system, the use of Solar energy for the price of the current natural gas is not recommended. By increasing the price of natural gas, the use of Solar energy is more economically feasible. The results of the study show that the use of three Solar Fields (two separate Solar Fields to produce superheated steam for a high-pressure turbine and low-pressure turbine and a Solar Field for energy storage using molten salt as thermal energy storage medium) rather than one Solar Field reduces electricity consumption by 1.83%–13.78% for the price of 9 $/MMBtu natural gas. Although each of the first and second Solar Fields produce different energy quantities, and therefore, require different Field areas, the Field coefficient of the Field is the same for both Solar Fields.
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Energy, exergy and exergo-economic analysis of different water desalination technologies powered by Linear Fresnel Solar Field
Desalination, 2018Co-Authors: Ighball Baniasad Askari, Mehran Ameri, Francesco CaliseAbstract:Abstract The integration of Multi Effect Desalination (MED) unit with and without Thermal Vapor Compression (TVC) system into the Linear Fresnel Rankine Cycle (LFRC) was investigated for different seawater temperatures when it is located at the regions with different Solar radiation levels. A comparison was made between the fresh water costs of the dual purpose LFRC/MED (or LFRC/MED/TVC) plants and the case when the MED and MED/TVC systems use direct steam of the LF Solar Field to produce fresh water (LF/MED & LF/MED/TVC). The water production costs of the described dual purpose plants were compared with that of the LFRC/Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant (LFRC/RO). An exergo-economic analysis was performed to determine the water unit costs of the plants. The results show that the fresh water costs of the LF/MED and LF/MED/TVC configurations are higher than that of the dual purpose plants. Also, it was shown that the fresh water cost is more affected by Solar radiation level rather than seawater temperature of a region. It was also found that at fuel prices of 0.23$/m3, the water production costs of fuel based dual purpose plants would be equal to that of the plants with Solar thermal source.