Modelling And Simulation Of Central Receiver Solar Thermal Power Plant

Abstract

The demand for renewable energy especially clean energy is growing rapidly due to newlinefast depletion of fossil fuels. Therefore, use of solar thermal energy for power newlinegeneration becomes important. Central receiver solar thermal power plant with high newlinetemperatures is innovative technology for sustaining ecological thermal power newlinegeneration. Experimental work for these solar thermal power plants is costly and time newlineconsuming. Also they require large space for installation and the components are newlinecostly. A number of software and tools are developed and are available for the newlinemodelling and simulation of solar thermal power plants. Some software helps in newlineanalyzing the performance of individual components of the power plant, whereas newlinesome software helps to analyze and predict the performance of the entire plant. None newlineof such software can be considered as standard tool for research and therefore, newlinesoftware s are still under development. Simulation of plant allows studying the newlineperformance of entire power plant prior to its actual construction. newlineIn this research work, mathematical modelling is done and user friendly simulation newlinetool is developed in Visual basic to study the thermal performance of plant. It can be newlinealso used to predict electric power generation from the plant. Equipment model newlinelibrary along with library of heat transport fluids and climatic parameters is provided newlinewith database as well as manual entry of parameters. The developed simulator can use newlineactual hourly weather data of any city for simulation. The simulator calculates thermal newlinepower flowing through each component and also determines when to operate the newlinevarious component models. Various options of plant configuration are available for newlineuser to perform simulation. The main components included are weather data, newlineheliostat, receiver, heat transport fluid, thermal storage tank and turbine.