Towards a more efficient generation of central tower hybrid thermosolar gas turbine power plants

Abstract

[EN]During the last years a significant R&D&i effort to develop energy production technologies capable to provide clean and efficient generation on one side, and reliable, non-intermittent, and predictable on the other is being done. In thermosolar power plants with a central tower receiver a working fluid runs a thermodynamic heat engine as a Rankine or Brayton one (or a combination of both) [1]. In these plants it is feasible to include a combustion chamber in series with the solar receiver in such a way that during low irradiance periods due to meteorological conditions or during the nights, the combustion chamber can provide the heat input required to keep approximately constant the turbine inlet temperature. And so, the plant power output. These plants are not completely carbon free, because of the combustion of a fossil fuel (usually natural gas) but produce