Evaluation of Annual Performance of 2-Tank and Thermocline Thermal Storage Systems for Trough Plants

A study was performed to compare the annual performance of 50 MW(e) Andasol-like trough plants that employ either a 2-tank or a thermocline-type molten-salt thermal storage system. TRNSYS software was used to create the plant models and to perform the annual simulations. The annual performance of each plant was found to be nearly identical in the base-case comparison. The reason that the thermocline exhibited nearly the same performance is primarily due to the ability of many trough power blocks to operate at a temperature that is significantly below the design point. However, if temperatures close to the design point are required, the performance of the 2-tank plant would be significantly better than the thermocline. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4004239]