Suchergebnisse

The intermittency of renewable energy systems remains one of the major hurdles preventing a large scale uptake of these technologies and concentrated solar power (CSP) systems are no different. However, CSP has the benefit of being able to store excess heat using thermal energy storage (TES). For the uptake of CSP with TES it must be demonstrated that the technology is both economically as well as environmentally feasible. This paper aims to investigate the economic and environmental impact of several TES options that are available for CSP systems. The investigated systems include an encapsulated phase change material (PCM) system, a coil-in-tank PCM system and a liquid sodium TES system. The economic impact in the current study refers to the capital cost (CAPEX) of each system including the tank, storage material, encapsulation cost (if applicable) and allowances for construction and engineering. The environmental impact of each system is accounted by calculating the embodied energy of each of the system components. Each storage system will be required to store a comparable amount of energy so that reliable conclusions can be drawn. The results from this analysis conclude that the encapsulated PCM (EPCM) and coil-in-tank system represent an embodied energy of roughly one third of the corresponding state-of-the-art two-tank molten salt system. Furthermore, the EPCM and coil-in-tank systems result in CAPEX reductions of 50% and 25% over the current state-of-the-art two-tank molten salt system. The liquid sodium system was found to result in higher embodied energy and CAPEX than any previously studied TES system. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of each system was discussed and compared to previous literature. ; This research was performed as part of the Australian Solar Thermal Research Initiative (ASTRI), a project supported by the Australian Government, through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). The work is partially funded by the Spanish Government (ENE2015-64117-C5-1-R and ENE2015-64117-C5-2-R). The authors would like to thank the Catalan Government for the quality accreditation given to the research group GREA (2014 SGR 123) and DIOPMA (2014 SGR 1543). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° PIRSES-GA-2013-610692 (INNOSTORAGE).

In the current study a novel geopolymer created from waste materials (namely fly ash and black slag) has been characterised as a potential high temperature thermal energy storage material option. Several geopolymer samples have been fabricated and characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Additionally, the density and heat capacity have been determined. Lastly, the cost of the material and packed bed system was estimated showing that the geopolymer-based systems are potentially 35% cheaper than the traditional 2-tank molten salt systems. ; This research was performed as part of the Australian Solar Thermal Research Institute (ASTRI), a project supported by the Australian Government, through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). The work was partially funded by the Spanish government (ENE2015-64117-C5-1-R (MINECO/FEDER)). The authors would like to thank the Catalan Government for the quality accreditation given to their research group (2014 SGR 123). GREA is certified agent TECNIO in the category of technology developers from the Government of Catalonia. This project has received funding from the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) under Grant agreement Nº PIRSES-GA-2013-610692 (INNOSTORAGE) and from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 657466 (INPATH-TES). Aran Solé would like to thank Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad de España for Grant Juan de la Cierva, FJCI-2015-25741. The authors would also like to acknowldege the Diopma group from the University of Barcelona thanks the funding by the Spanish Government (RTI2018-093849-B-C32), and the Catalan Government for the quality accreditation (2017 SGR 118).