Parametric analysis on optimized design of hybrid solar power plants

There is increasing interest in utility-scale solar power plants with storage which can flexibly dispatch renewable energy to the grid. However, plant design possesses many degrees of freedom and non-obvious trade-offs in performance. Software tools can estimate or optimize the performance of a specific plant configuration under market and weather conditions of interest; the associated cost parameters and operating assumptions strongly influence estimates of plant performance and decisions regarding optimal sizing. We employ the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Hybrid Optimization and Performance Platform, which incorporates optimal dispatch when evaluating plant performance, and investigate the sensitivity to weather and market conditions, operating limitations, and the presence of a capacity-based incentive. We demonstrate changes in plant performance and optimal sizing with respect to these inputs and discuss implications. Results show that PV-with-battery designs are more profitable under our assumptions, but that designs including a concentrated solar power (CSP) system produce significantly greater annual energy; and that CSP-with-thermal energy storage designs maximizing the benefit-to-cost ratio have an input-dependent linear relationship between the CSP field solar multiple and the hours of storage as the project budget varies.

Automated summary

There is growing interest in utility-scale solar power plants with storage that can dispatch renewable energy to the grid flexibly. Plant design has many degrees of freedom and hidden trade-offs in performance. Software tools can estimate or optimize the performance of a specific plant configuration under market and weather conditions, and the associated cost parameters and operating assumptions strongly affect plant performance estimates and decisions on optimal sizing. The study investigates the sensitivity to weather and market conditions, operating limitations, and capacity-based incentives using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Hybrid Optimization and Performance Platform. The results demonstrate changes in plant performance and optimal sizing based on these inputs and discuss their implications.