Study of strategies for thermal energy storage in

Solar Tower CSP Power Plants Introduction for

Projecto MEFT
Manuel Nascimento#1
#

MEFT Instituto Superior Tcnico

Avenida Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisbon
1

manuel.nascimento@gmail.com

Abstract This document is firstly an introduction and

discussion on the motivations of the subject of my masters
thesis, and is also a state-of-the-art review. It was presented in
accordance with the requirements of the Projecto MEFT
course.

I. INTRODUCTION
A. CONCENTRATED SOLAR POWER (CSP)
Concentrated solar power pertains to the use of solar
collectors to concentrate direct solar irradiation and thus
supply solar thermal energy for different media. This thermal
energy can have various applications in industry, but perhaps
one of the most important is the electricity generation. CSP
has increasingly proven to provide a high contribution in the
electricity generation markets all over the world. The basic
principle for using CSP on electricity generation is to use the
media which received solar thermal energy to power an
electricity generating engine. Four main concepts/designs
exist presently: parabolic trough, solar tower (or central
receiver), parabolic dish and linear Fresnel reflector. These
can be seen in fig. 2. Parabolic troughs and linear Fresnel CSP
plants have 1-axis solar tracking, while central receivers and

Fig. 1: Basic layout of a Solar Tower CSP Plant

parabolic dishes CSP plants require 2-axis solar tracking.

These different concepts present advantages and
disadvantages between them and are in different stages of
maturity and development. In table 1 a summarized
description and status of the different technologies can be seen
[2]. Choosing a plant type for a certain location is a very
complex process that comprises the consideration of multiple
factors of different natures: economic, technical and
environmental. Reference [3] sets out to evaluate the main
existing collection technologies using the framework of an
Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) in order to weigh in
these multiple factors and try to obtain a result.
Of particular importance in this study is the solar tower
design. It is important because it allows for high installed
capacities in conjunction with higher temperatures, which can
mean higher efficiencies in the electricity generation process.
In solar tower plants, the power cycle used for electricity
generation is the Rankine Cycle in steam turbines, which is
the dominant and very reliable power generation technology
throughout the world. A basic layout of a Solar Tower CSP
plant can be seen in fig. 1 [4]. From the same work, currently
operating central facilities are listed in table 2. In the future
centrals of up to 500 MW are being commissioned and/or
planned [4]. For further detailed information on Central
Receiver Solar Thermal Power Plants [4] is suggested.
B. MOTIVATION FOR THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE
This work will focus on strategies for thermal energy
storage (TES) systems in electricity-generating Solar Tower
CSP plants. Firstly, it is important to realize the importance of
such systems and the contributions they can provide for Solar

Fig. 2: The four main CSP concepts

Table 1: Summary of characteristics and status of CSP

Tower CSP plants, electricity generation in general, and other

aspects.
Electricity production is essential for mankind. Several
production technologies exist, conventional and renewable,
with different characteristics and costs. Ultimately, the major
driving force for choosing which technologies to use has been
the cost factor. Traditionally, fossil-fuel power plants have
been less costly. However, they emit large amounts of CO2,
which nowadays is obvious that contribute most negatively on
the environment. At least 90% of CO2 emissions come from
the burning of fossil fuels in the power generation and
transport sectors [4]. Decisive action must be undertaken to
reverse this situation.
With the aim of providing incentives to their development,
recent renewable energy sources such as Wind Power,
Photovoltaics and CSP have benefited from special tariff
system, such as the Portuguese PRE (Produo em Regime
Especial production under special regime), which have
allowed them to operate with LCOEs (levelized cost of energy)

Table 2: Currently operating central receiver CSP plants

higher than in an competitive market situation. However, it is

to be expected that in the future this situation will change. In
any case, it is always in the best interests of a producer of
electricity to minimize the production costs. Also, it is
important to notice that in the electricity markets such as
MIBEL (Mercado Ibrico de Electricidade Iberian
electricity market), the energy demand, and thus, clearing
price is not uniform throughout the day.
From an electricity generation point of view, CSP in
general presents some problems that effectively lower
potential CSP plant revenues. Firstly, the number of solar
hours in a day is limited, even on clear days, which means
that the plant cannot operate continuously. Another major
problem is intermittence: passing clouds can cause variations
on the heat flux supplied to the steam generator which not
only reduce the effective working hours of the plant but can
also be incompatible with its specifications. Both these can be
addressed or at least mitigated with thermal energy storage.
Thermal energy storage acts basically as a buffer

TES can have a strong future contribution in allowing CSP

plants to be intermediate-load, or even base-load plants. This
will allow CSP to have an important role in replacing older
power stations, namely coal-powered ones, which will be of
great importance for reducing CO2 emissions.
C. SOME BACKGROUND ON COSTS
As mentioned before, costs are ultimately the major driving
force when considering CSP power plants. These have
variations, even within the same technology, due to location
differences, different components used, etc. Table 3 represents
a brief overview of costs for different generating technologies
as of 2013 (taken the from Open Energy Information
database). Technologies are sorted by increasing media LCE.
As can be seen, Solar CSP is still a long way in terms of
competitiveness with other sources, and cost reduction is of
paramount importance in future research and development. In
2009, USAs Department of Energy has set a goal to reduce
the LCE to 90 $/MWh by 2020. In 2011, the DOE officially
unveiled the SunShot Initiative, an ambitious research and
development plant that aims to further reduce the LCE to
60$/MWh. This is the figure that will allow CSP to be truly
competitive in the markets. The proposed roadmap can be
seen in [6].

Fig. 3: Simulation of usage of TES flexibility [5]

between the receiver system and power block (where

electricity generation takes place) of a CSP plant. Instead of
heating directly the media that powers the power block, the
media can be stored in a container for later use. This way,
when there are passing clouds, the storage system can
continue to feed the power block and ensure a smooth
operation of the facility. Also, for some hours after the sun
sets, the storage media can continue to supply heat to the
power block, until its exhaustion, greatly increasing the total
working hours of the CSP plant. TES also provides the CSP
plant with more flexibility - it can store collected solar energy
for later use, especially when demand and/or prices are higher,
increasing revenues [5]. This can be seen in fig. 3.
Additionally, TES improves the dispatchability of the plant,
e.g., its ability to generate electricity on a short notice.
By increasing the effective working hours of a CSP plant,

Table 3: Overview of current costs for electricity generation

II. THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE

TECHNOLOGIES
A. INTRODUCTION TO THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE
Energy storage is the storing of energy of some form in
order to be able to retrieve it at a later time. This is especially
convenient and important when the need for energy
consumption occurs at different times and/or places from
when and where the energy sources or supplies are available.
All energy forms fall into one of these categories: potential
energy (e.g. gravitational or chemical), kinetic energy,
electrical energy or thermal energy. With regards to electricity
production, the most widely known forms of energy storage
are electrical (e.g. batteries), hydro storage (e.g. in dams) and
thermal energy storage. As discussed before, thermal energy
storage is one of the most important advantages of solar
thermal power over other forms of CSP and other electricity
generation technologies.
As mentioned briefly before, the basic functioning principle
of this type of storage is to have the storage material absorb
thermal energy from the energy source (the Sun, in CSP),
which is also known as charging, keep it stored, and then
discharge the storage system so that it releases the stored
energy to the electricity generation system (also known as the
power block). The storage system acts, then, as a buffer
between the solar field and the power block of traditional CSP
plants without storage. Integration between the storage system
and other systems on the CSP plants must be considered fig. 4
[2]. The storage system complements the solar receiver
system when there is a low solar irradiation (intermittent
clouds) and can substitute it altogether for a period of time
during the night or cloudy days, supplying energy to the
power block electricity generation.
There are different storage systems for thermal CSP, with
different concepts and designs, which have different
characteristics that constitute advantages and disadvantages
that need to be considered. However, they all fall under three
basic categories: sensible energy storage (SHS), latent heat
storage (LHS) and chemical heat storage (CHS).
Sensible heat storage pertains to the fact that when the
temperature of a substance increases so does its energy
content. The energy that is absorbed (released) as the
temperature increases (decreases) is called sensible heat. The
amount of energy absorbed or released as the temperature
suffers a variation depends on the material and can be
expressed by:

Fig. 4: Component considerations in CSP plants with TES

heat capacity (given in the SI by J.kg-1.K-1), which usually

varies with temperature.
As the temperature of a material varies, the material can
change its phase, e.g. from solid to liquid or from liquid to gas.
At the phase change temperature, there is an amount of energy
that must be supplied to the material in order for it to undergo
the phase change, during which its temperature is constant.
That energy is called latent heat, and the amount of energy
depends on the material and is called heat of fusion (solid to
liquid) and heat of vaporization (liquid to gas). The latent heat
is usually denoted by , given typically given by kJ/kg.
Usually, when this energy storage principle is used, the
material not only undergoes a change of phase but also an
increase and decrease of temperature in both the phases, so the
sensible heat involved must also be considered. The amount of
energy absorbed or released, including the sensible heat can
be expressed by:
(

where is the latent heat of the phase change and Tp is the

phase change temperature for the material (either fusion or
vaporization).
The final category of storing thermal energy is based on
reversible endothermic chemical reactions. Certain chemical
reactions, called endothermic, require heat in order to occur.
By providing this heat at the correct temperature, a chemical
compound can be dissociated into its products. Later, the
temperature of these products can be lowered, forcing the
synthesis reaction to take place. This synthesis reaction is
exothermic, and releases the heat that was absorbed before (all
or almost all). The amount of energy absorbed and released
depends on the chemical compound and its reaction.
Energy storage can be further categorized as active or
passive [7], which can be seen in figure 5. In active systems,
Fig. 5: Categorization of TES systems

where m is the mass of the material, Ti and Tf are the

initial and final temperatures, respectively, and c the specific

attractive alternative. Also, a low environmental impact is

highly desirable, as is expected of renewable energy sources.
Finally, in developing a CSP power plant with TES, several
other considerations must be taken into account. These can be
divided into plant level, component level and system level
design considerations and are summarized in fig. 6 [2].
TES is available mainly in CSP plants of the trough and the
tower (also known as central receiver) types. Remember that
in these CSP plant types use steam turbines performing the
Rankine Cycle to produce electricity, which is the dominant
power generation technology throughout the world.
As such, this also needs to be considered when thinking
Fig. 6: Overview of TES design considerations
about using TES for CSP plants. Lovegrove et al. [1] present
the heat transfer is characterized by forced convection, where on table 11.1 a selection of commercial and experimental CSP
the receiver medium is circulated through heat exchangers in facilities and their respective storage systems. Further details
the plants collector(s). In contrast, passive systems are static for CSP plants can be seen in table 4 of [8]. For more
and require a heat transfer fluid (HTF) to pass through the extensive listing of CSP plants, check Wikipedia
storage material (via heat exchangers) in order to charge or (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_thermal_power_st
discharge the storage. Active systems can be further ations) As we will discuss in detail, the different categories of
subdivided as direct and indirect. In a direct system, the thermal energy storage (SHS, LHS and CHS) are in different
storage material used is also the HTF that circulates between stages of development.
Next we shall discuss in more detail each category of
the receiver system and the power block, while in an indirect
system, there is an additional HTF fluid that exchanges heat thermal energy storage with respect to CSP implementation,
with the storage media via heat exchangers. Indirect systems exploring each configuration and design either available today
are preferred when the storage media is incompatible or in testing or research.
(chemically, pressure-wise, etc.) with the other systems and/or
piping, at the expense of potential losses in the additional heat
B. SENSIBLE HEAT STORAGE (SHS) SYSTEMS
exchangers necessary.
SHS systems store energy by heating up the storage
In every category, there are some design and concept
material,
which later will be discharged providing heat for the
alternatives which will be briefly revised in the following
power
block
in the absence of solar irradiation. SHS materials
sections. Also, there is a wide range of materials that can be
can
be
liquid
or solid. It is important to keep in mind water as
used, depending on the temperature range and application (for
an extensive and commented listing of tested materials, check a reference substance, since it has the highest specific heat
table 7 in [2]). Common to all these, however, are some capacity per mass of all solids and liquids. As such, for a
desirable characteristics which should be pursued when temperature difference of 100 K, the highest possible storage
investigating the potential use of a certain design/concept and capacity for sensible heat storage is of the order of 0.396
material TES in CSP. In the storage material it is desirable to MJ/kg. Traditional burnable chemical energy sources have
have high energy density (also known as storage capacity), much higher values (e.g. petrol 42.4 MJ/kg and coal 24
high energy transfer rate to and from the storage material, MJ/kg), so SHS thermal systems require large masses of
mechanical and chemical stability (must endure an amount of material due to their low storage density. As mentioned, there
cycles of charge and discharge compatible with the power are a variety of materials that can be used. Tables 4 and 5 [7]
plants expected life-time), compatibility and safety in its show the main characteristics for various liquid and solid
integration with the plants systems and components, low materials being used, respectively.
thermal losses, controllability, and others. Besides this, the
total cost of the power plant must be as low as possible in
order to compete with other technologies and make it an
Table 4

far, molten salts. Of these, mixtures of nitrates are the most

common. The Gemasolar features 8.500 tons of nitrate salts, a
mixture of 60% NaNO3 and 40% KNO3 often called solar
salt (see also table 4).
The major disadvantage when using molten salts are their
relatively high freezing temperature, about 120-220 C, and
low thermal conductivity, which make re-melting and
extremely complex process. The temperature of the storage
media must be kept above its freezing temperature at all times,
otherwise the flow of media would stop, representing a
catastrophic breakdown of the facility. This represents a high
risk from the operational standpoint, and means that special
care must be taken, namely circulating the media through the
night or using auxiliary heating in order to ensure adequate
temperature in the entire system. All this increases the O&M
costs. Other disadvantage is the inherent corrosivity of these
materials, which increases with temperature. Because of this,
more expensive materials are required for the storage tanks.
However, studies have been made to test the resistance of
stainless steel over multiple thermal cycles of nitrate mixtures.
In particular, after the plant Solar Two (predecessor of the
Gemasolar) finished its operation, examinations were made to
the interior of the salt tanks [10]. After 30,000 h of operation,
analyses showed that corrosion took place within acceptable
low rates.
The use of this two tank system allows for the existence of
a hot tank with potentially very high temperatures (as long
as there are adequate storage materials). Remembering that
the electricity is generating via a Rankine Cycle in the steam
turbine in the power block, higher efficiencies can be obtained
by using higher temperature steam generation. The most
efficient state-of-the-art steam turbines operate at up to 700C
steam inlet temperature, in supercritical conditions (above the
critical point of 22MPa and 374C). These kind of
temperatures can only be obtained in tower-type CSP, as
through and Fresnel concentrators are limited to about 400C
if thermal oil is used or 500C if an alternative HTF is used,
like direct steam generation (DSG). The tradeoff when using
these higher temperatures is the existence of higher heat losses
from the solar heat, requiring more expensive piping and
materials.
If the storage media is expensive, it is possible to adopt a
similar but indirect two-tank design, using an intermediate,
less expensive HTF. This is the case in parabolic through
plant that uses thermal oil as HTF and a two-tank molten salt
storage system [7]. Notice that this indirect design requires
additional heat exchangers between the HTF and the storage
media, which is more costly. One example of such a plant is

Table 5

1. Liquid media storage

a) Two tank design
The two-tank design can be seen in fig. 7 [9] where it is
integrated in a central receiver CSP plant. This is an active,
direct type storage system: the storage media circulates
through the system and is heated up in the receiver directly,
without the use of heat exchangers, which are usually
expensive. One of the most recent examples of this kind of
CSP plant is the Gemasolar near Seville, belonging to
Torresol Energy. In operation since 2011, it features an
installed capacity of 19.9 MW with 2300 MWhth (15h)
thermal storage, which was proven to be capable of operating
24h a day at full load. As the name suggests, this type of
design features two tanks that store the liquid media and
through which the media circulates. When the media passes
through the receiver system, it absorbs the solar energy and
goes to the hot storage tank. It is important to design the
facility to optimize the operation parameters (mass flow rate,
solar multiple, receiver power) to assure that the maximum
quantity of storage media reaches the desired operation
temperature. Exiting the hot tank, it transfers its energy via
heat exchangers to the power block, by lowering its
temperature to a cold temperature (which is still rather hot,
at about 290 C in Gemasolar). Then, the storage media is
channeled to the cold tank where it awaits to be pumped up
to the receiver and continue the cycle. The use of two tanks is
preferred over one tank due to the large amount of storage
media needed for high storage energy, as mentioned. The
preferred media for these liquid two-tank designs has been, so
Fig. 7: Typical 2-tank TES solar tower
CSP plant configuration

the
Andasol-1
(http://www.nrel.gov/csp/solarpaces/project_detail.cfm/projec
tID=3), a 50 MW plant, featuring 1,010 MWh (7.5h) of
storage via 28,500 tons (14,000 m3) of solar salt. Comparing
Andasol-1 and Gemasolar, notice that even though Andasol-1
has much higher TES content, Gemasolar, due to higher hot
temperature achievable and greater temperature difference is
able to achieve much longer storage periods: 15h vs 7.5h,
which is highly desirable.
b) Single tank design
One other liquid active indirect storage system is the single
tank system, in which the hot and cold fluids (nitrate mixtures
molten salts) are stored in a single tank. In the tank, the hot
and cold fluids are separated due to stratification, hot on top,
cold on the bottom, and the area between both fluids is called
the thermocline. To help the thermocline effect, a filler
material can be used. At Sandia National Laboratories, silica
sands and quartzite rock were demonstrated to withstand the
molten salt environment with no significant deterioration [11].
The advantage of this approach is the potential cost reduction
because only one tank is used. According the mentioned work,
this thermocline system would be about 35% cheaper than the
two-tank storage system. However, maintaining the thermal
stratification requires a more complex charging and
discharging procedures and adequate methods to avoid mixing
of the hot and cold portions of the storage media. Furthermore,
research on the applicability of this concept to tower CSP
facilities is still unavailable.

Fig. 8: PS10, a typical DSG solar tower plant with steam storage

filled with saturated water at high pressure and with a small

volume of steam. This system can be used in CR CSP by
using water as the HTF and storage media in what is
commonly known as direct steam generation (DSG). During
charging, steam generated in the receiver system is blown into
the bottom of the storage vessel. Some of the steam condenses
and heats the water, while the remainder will fill the rest of
the volume above the water. This raises the water level to
about of the volume of the vessel, raising pressure and
temperature. To feed the power block of the facility, steam
can be discharged from the storage system via the discharge
pipe on top of the vessel. This relieves the pressure in the
vessel which causes more water to vaporize continuing to
supply steam until complete discharge. Temperature will also
gradually reduce. It is important to note that steam
accumulators have fast reaction times. Various operation
methods can be used, namely by controlling the steam mass
flow rate or by controlling the steam pressure. As such, there
are many operation design considerations to be taken into
account. Assuming that the amount of saturated liquid water
mliquid is constant in the steam accumulator, the amount of
energy provided during the discharge process can be estimated
by [1]:
(
( ))
where cliquid is the average specific heat capacity of liquid
water, Tsat is the saturation temperature (dependent on the
temperature) and Pi and Pf are, respectively, the initial and
final pressure during discharge. Higher working pressures
mean higher volume specific masses of steam and, thus, more
energy storage potential. However, these present challenges
from the technical point of view with regards to the materials
of pressure vessels and also the pipes and valves, which result
in higher costs. Indeed, due to the difficulty to store steam in
supercritical conditions (very high temperature and pressure),
this approached has been used with relatively lower
temperatures. Because of this DSG type plant system has been
mainly used in parabolic through CSP technology. However,
some power tower facilities have used these storage systems.
For instance, Europes first commercial CSP plant, PS10
(http://www.nrel.gov/csp/solarpaces/project_detail.cfm/projec
tID=38) in fig. 10 [12], near Seville, has begun operation in
2007 and produces steam at 40-45 bar and 250C. It features 4
tanks with a total storage capacity of 20 MWh that enable the

c) Steam accumulator
As mentioned before, water is a reference media for energy
storage, due to its high specific heat capacity per mass of all
solids and liquids. It also has a low cost and high
compatibility. For temperatures above 100C (which is the
case for Rankine Cycle Steam Turbines commonly used in
central receiver CSP) water must be kept under pressure in
order to be used in the liquid form as storage media. Steam
accumulators are dynamic 2-phase systems that have been
used for many years in fossil fuel fired power plants and, as
such, benefit from much experience. Also, steam
accumulators are common in process industry for
temperatures between 100C and 200C. As can be seen in fig
9 [8], they consist basically of a pressurized vessel partially

Fig. 9: Steam accumulator TES concept

Fig. 10: Concrete module of [13] before concrete filling

facility to run the 11 MWel power block during 50 minutes at

50% load operation. These are very low values for storage
energy and can only be used as a buffer against
intermittency (passing clouds, etc.) rather than as long-term
storage capacity as seen in the previous two-tank molten salt
case.

2. Solid media storage

a) Indirect designs heat exchangers
Instead of using liquid materials in indirect SHS designs,
its also possible to use solid media. The configuration is
similar to the Andasol-type plants but with concrete storage
instead of two tanks for molten salts [7]. These types of
systems are indirect, requiring and HTF to circulate through
the entire CSP system and exchange heat in the various
components. Recalling table 5 solid materials for SHS are
usually less expensive than liquid materials, within 10-20% of
the popular molten salts. Also, the O&M costs are expected to
be lower. Furthermore, with solid materials, there is no risk of
freezing, leaking or evaporation, as there is in liquid media.
Recall, in particular, that the consequences of freezing molten
salts would be catastrophic.
Various castable materials (materials that can be easily be
transported and placed in a container, usually from a liquid or
molten origin) have been investigated for this purpose. Of
particular interest has been the concrete, mainly because its
low cost, availability and ease of use, as well as vast
experience. Laing et al. [13] [14] have studied, and tested a
modular concrete system to be integrated in trough plants. The
modules, developed by Ed. Zblin AG and DLR (Deutsches
Zentrum fr Luft- und Raumfahrt German Aerospace center)
are consisted basically of tube registers with 132 tubes with
length 9 m and outer diameter 18 mm, which are then filled
with castable concrete (fig. 11) [13] and then thermically
isolated. This extensive piping is the main drawback of these
systems in terms of costs. These models were first tested at
Plataforma Solar de Almeria in Spain. In [13], by the end of
October 2008 they had accumulated 4 months of thermal

cycles (more than 300) between 300C and 400C and about
50 cycles with a temperature difference of 40K, and have
found that during that time the performance of the storage was
absolutely constant. It is important to note that, for all
industrial sectors, roughly 30% of process heat requirement is
between 100C and 400C, which fits very well for this
concrete systems. To implement this on a 50 MW Andasoltype trough plant, with storage capacity of about 1100 MWh,
252 basic storage modules are needed, arranged in 4 groups of
63 in series and parallel packed together. The total area would
be about 300m x 100m. The investment cost would be in the
range of 34.5 /kWhth. Further studies have been carried out in
order to obtain higher working temperature and reduce costs.
To obtain higher working temperatures, different mixtures of
concrete were investigated. In [14] special type of concrete
mixture was tested, N4-concrete, mainly based on blast
furnace cement as a binder system, temperature resistant
gravel and sand (functioning as aggregates) and a small
amount of polyethylene fibers. Special attention was given to
the initial heating up of the concrete, with regards to mass
losses. These are essentially due to loss of free, evaporable
water, dehydration of the hardened cement paste, and mass
losses of the aggregates. Also, it is necessary to check if
strength values (mainly stress) are within acceptable ranges.
Overall, results show that, up to 500C, mass losses and
strength values for the concrete stabilize after a period of time
and a number of thermal cycles, with no degradation, which
indicates that the use of concrete as a storage medium up to
500C seems possible. Thermal conductivity between the HTF
and the solid media can be further enhanced by using
extended heat transfer areas with fins or similar devices.
However, since the amount of piping is so extensive, fins and
other structures are not cost effective [8].
b) Indirect designs packed bed
Instead of using piping to provide contact between the HTF
and the solid storage material, some HTFs and solid materials
allow for direct contact between them. In this case, the
particles of the storage material are packed together in a
container and the HTF flows through the particles inside the
container. This direct contact allows for much higher volume
specific heat transfer areas, however, the liquid HTF and solid

Fig. 11: Packed bed type solar tower CSP plant

the heat transfer between the particles and some working fluid
is a complex procedure [18].
C. LATENT HEAT STORAGE (LHS) SYSTEMS
Latent heat storage systems use the enthalpy change of a
substance that undergoes a phase change to store energy.
Usually, the solid to liquid transition is used, and thus the heat
of fusion of the used substance is the relevant quantity. The
main advantage of this concept is that the change of phase is a
nearly isothermal process, which allows for energy transfer
within a narrow range of temperatures, close to the phase
change temperature. This can be important for maintaining the
HTF or the inlet temperature to the power block at a
controlled temperature. Furthermore, because the heat of
Table 6: Jlich CSP central storage system specifications
fusion is very high, large amounts of energy can be store with
media must be compatible with each other, with no reaction or relatively low volumes when compared to other types of
corrosion, and work at the same pressure.
energy storage. This results in some of the smaller volumes
This packed bed concept can also be used with flue gases and lowest storage media costs of any storage concepts. The
(exhaust gases, rich in Nitrogen, sometimes up to two thirds, major design concern when employing this storage system is
and CO2; often from power plants) or air as heat transfer the choice of operating temperature, and thus of material used,
fluids. There is already usage of these gases in existing which is commonly called phase change material (PCM).
industrial processes, such as in the steel industry (hot blast All LHS systems are indirect, requiring HTF, and so the
stoves or Cowper stoves), glass industry and industrial air chosen PCM must be compatible with the chosen HTF. Also,
purification systems. Zunft et al. [15] have tested this potential materials must involve a phase change that is both
possibility for CSP in the Jlich Solar Power Tower (figure 10) physically and chemically reversible, that is, the melting
[15]. This tower plant uses air at atmospheric pressure, temperature and melting enthalpy should not change over
heating up the air up to about 700C. The storage system is many phase change cycles. There have been studies over a
composed of ceramic material, cycled between 120C and wide range of materials, over a temperature range up to about
680C (table 6). In particular, it was shown that the facility 1000C, in a number of categories, such as inorganic (salts)
operated satisfactorily through thermal cycling of the storage, substances, inorganic euctetic salt mixtures, organic
with almost constant temperature of the storage outlet during substances and metals and metal alloys. The variety of
discharge, followed by a sharp decrease near depletion. This is substance is very extensive, and [19] presents an exhaustive
compatible with an effective turbine operation. Further review and extensive tables with materials that have been
investigation needs to be developed in order to increase the tested. It is important to notice that most of the pure inorganic
storage duration, which was of about 1.5h.
salts and euctetic salt mixtures are commonly seen in nitrates
Furnas [16] studied the heat transfer from air to a bed of (NaNO3 is the most investigate medium), carbonates and
iron ore pellets at up to 750 C, concluding that the coefficient chlorides, which have low costs. Table 7 [2] presents a brief
of heat transfer varies linearly with the air flow rate. Nsofor listing of some potential latent heat storage materials.
and Adebiyi [17] performed experimental studies and
Usually, the thermal conductivity of these materials (except
modelling on a packed bed of zirconium oxide pellets, with
flue gas as the charging fluid and ambient air as the
discharging fluid. Temperatures up to 1000C were achieved.
Tower CSP plants alone could provide these kind of
temperatures.
c) Direct designs solid particles
One final design which is in its early stages of conception is
through the direct absorption by solid particles of concentrated
solar radiation in the receiver. It is considered to be a potential
system for chemical applications requiring high temperatures,
and could potentially be used for electricity generation in CSP.
Several issues have to be addressed before test-scale and
commercial-scale
CSP
is
possible.
Firstly,
the
handling/pumping of the material from the ground level to the
top of the tower where the receiver is placed will require
piping that will be subjected to significant mechanical loads
and at high pressures, presenting technical challenges. Also,
Table 7: Potential latent heat storage materials

Table 8: Materials considered for heat exchanger implementation in LHS systems

metal and metal alloys) is the main obstacle presented by LHS

systems. Consequently, the main challenge when using these
systems is the development of cost-effective heat transfer
concepts, in order to provide adequate heat transfer between
the PCM and HTF, while maintaining the cost attractive.
Because of this, thermal energy storage systems using PCMs
are often categorized according to the heat transfer concept
employed [20].

need to be added, increasing the costs, making this

approach less attractive.

1. LHS with extended heat transfer area

3. Taking advantage of LHS for DSG

The property of isothermal energy storage can be used to
great advantage in CSP technology in DSG (direct steam
generation) as can be seen with figure 12 [2]. Steam
generation is an isothermal process. When using steam for
charging and discharging a sensible heat storage, the
charging steam must be in a much higher saturation
temperature than the discharging steam so that the heat
transfers occur. Because of this, the discharged steam, that
is, the steam generated by discharge the storage system,
will have lower exergy, and thus lower power generation
potential. In contrast, if a LHS system is used, the charging
and discharging steams will have approximately the same
temperature, and no exergy is lost.
These systems have mostly been used in trough CSP
plants, but simulations have also been made for tower
power plants [9]. A proposed implementation of LHS
storage systems in DSG has been through a combination
with two other storage systems, in parallel [21]. A sensible
heat storage system is used for preheating, then a LHS for
the steam generation and, after that another SHS system for
superheating of generated steam. Obviously, the integration
of 3 storage systems is more challenging with respect to
operation control. The PCM used was 140 kg of NaNO3.

With the objective of increasing the thermal conductivity

between the PCM and the HTF, instead of using a greater
amount of HTF pipes, which is expensive, it is possible to
extend the effective surface area with fins which can also
be configured in a sandwich type arrangement.
Reference [19] presents an aluminium heat exchanger with
long fins for usage with PCMs. Because they are in direct
content with the PCM, special care must be taken for the
materials and design of the fins. Usually, parallel tubes are
more distanced from each other than in conventional heat
exchangers. The material used must be resistant to potential
corrosion from the PCM and also be capable of sustaining
thermomechanical stress caused by the volume variation of
the PCM during the change of phase. In table 8 [19] several
materials for extending the heat transfer area in PCMs are
presented. Various research projects carried out by DLR
using the sandwich concept have demonstrated the
feasibility of this finned tube concept. The contribution of
the finned heat exchangers was shown to be significant
[19].
Another option is to use micro-encapsulation of the
PCM, that is, distribute the PCM over an amount of smaller
sealed vessels or capsules and have the HTF flow
through them. However, studies carried out in the DISTOR
project [20], have determined that it was not economically
attractive to pursue this concept.

D. CHEMICAL HEAT STORAGE (SHS) SYSTEMS

Chemical heat storage systems use the property that certain
chemical reactions are reversible. The heat collected in the

2. LHS using composite material with increased

thermal conductivity
Another method for improving the effective thermal
conductivity of a PCM material is by homogenously
adding a different material with higher thermal
conductivity. This can be achieved by either dispersing
highly conductive particles in the PCM material or by
integrating the PCM in vessels with matrices or nets of,
for instance, graphite or aluminium. As in the previous case,
corrosion can occur and must be considered. In both cases,
significant amounts of these better conductive materials
Fig. 12: Typical Rankine Cycle of a steam turbine for CSP

10

Table 9: Potential reactions to be used in CHS systems

receiver system of a CSP plant can be used to excite an

endothermic chemical reaction, typically a dissociation of the
media in less complex chemical structures. If this reaction is
completely reversible, the reverse reaction can be triggered
later, usually in a lower temperature, which will release the
stored energy. This operation is an analogous fashion to latent
heat storage systems, except in the fact that chemical reactions
may have a wider temperature range. Design-wise, these
systems could be similar to two-tank system, each tank for
each reaction. CHS systems are the least investigated and
development of reversible thermochemical reactions is in the
very early stages. As such, economic issues and system
aspects warrant further investigations. However, the main
advantage of using reversible chemical reactions as an energy
storage system is the potentially high energy density. Also
attractive is the possibility to store the reactants in
atmospheric temperature, preventing against thermal losses.
Again, corrosion in the containers/piping must be taken into
account, as well as complete reversibility of the reactions. In
table 9 [7] some reactions that have been investigated to be
used as chemical storage system are presented. Take note of
the variety of temperature ranges available, much similar to
the case of PCMs. According to [ref new_6], the most relevant
chemical processes for CHS systems at present are the metal
oxide/metal and ammonia.

1. Metal Oxide/Metal
Foster et al. [22] studied these materials for CHS
systems and deemed them technically feasible. The
governing reactions are:

A schematic for a corresponding solar reactor was

proposed, as can be seen in figure 13 [22]. The dissociation
reaction takes place at about 980K in the reactor using the
concentrated solar radiation, reducing the SnO2 with CH4.
At these temperatures the SnO2 is a solid dust floating
above the liquid Sn. This liquid Sn is stored after being
formed. When heat from the storage system is needed, the
Sn is cooled via heat exchangers until it reaches the reverse
reaction temperature and is passed to a secondary tank.
There, water vapor is added, forcing the reverse reaction,
producing SnO 2 and thus effectively recovering the initial
material. Although technically feasible, development and
demonstration of this configuration in CSP technology is
still pending.
2. Ammonia
The main industrial process for ammonia synthesis (NH 3)
is the well-known Haber Bosch process. This process is
widely used around the world for the production of
fertilizers and explosives. An excess of 125 million tonnes
of ammonia are produced every year. The synthesis occurs
via an endothermic reaction, and thus the reverse reaction
(dissociation of ammonia) can be used for chemical energy
storage. The governing equations are:

Fig. 13: Proposed configuration for a CHS system with CSP for
the SnO2 dissociation reaction

In Lovegrove et al. [23] the Solar Thermal Group of the

Australian National University have proposed and
extensively investigated a parabolic dish configuration for
this effect, operated at 15 kW, at 10MPa. The volumetric
storage capacity obtained was about 40 kWhth/m3.

11

III.

reactions must be ensured and overall energetic and exergetic

analysis should be performed.

MATURITY, SUMMARY AND FURTHER

DEVELOPMENTS FOR TES

As we have seen, there are multiple technologies, designs

and materials for thermal energy storage. A brief overview of
the maturity of the different systems and their working
temperatures is shown in table 10 [24].
The common requirements that should be pursued when
considering any TES system are: high storage capacity; good
heat transfer between the HTF and the storage media;
mechanical and chemical stability of the storage material;
compatibility between the HTF and the storage material;
compatibility between the storage material and the storage
vessel (avoiding corrosion and degradation); complete
reversibility over a number of charging/discharging cycles
(longevity); low thermal losses; ease of control; ease of
integration into the power plant. Plant design consideration
must take into account operation strategy, maximum load and
nominal temperatures. The different storage concepts have
various advantages and disadvantages between them. A
considerable exhaustive summary of them can be seen in [8].
The current leading storage system is SHS with molten
salts. As can be seen in [5], about 50% of the costs with these
systems concern the molten salts, and, as such, research in
cost reduction of these salts will be very important. Steam
accumulator systems have been extensively used as well, but
since the costs for the pressure vessels at temperatures higher
than about 250 C are very high, future growth of this
technology is probably limited. Concrete SHS systems show
promise in the near future as they have been recently tested.
They show a potential for cost reduction of the storage system,
when comparing with the molten salts storage. This has to be
balanced by the additional cost of the heat exchangers
employed, however, which dominate the storage systems
costs [1]. Further research and development of cost-effective
heat transfer systems should be pursued in the future. Packed
bed solid ceramic storage with air or flue gas HTF has the
potential to reach very high temperatures, which is of
particular interest to tower CSP. Latent heat storage systems
with their PCMs may be particularly interesting in the future
for DSG plants, taking advantage of their higher energy
density and nearly constant temperature. This can be achieved
by integrating a 3-storage design, as proposed in [21]. An
interesting comparison between plants using two-tank molten
storage systems and this 3-storage DSG concept can be seen
in [9] and is explained in the following section. Chemical
storage is still in its earlier development stages, requiring
further research especially since the long-term reversibility of

IV.

THE IMPORTANCE OF COMPUTER

SIMULATIONS

Table 10: Brief summary of maturity status on CSP TES

technologies

Computer simulations can be used and are very important

when studying, designing and optimizing CSP plants and/or
TES systems. At the end of the day, perhaps the most
important criteria for analysis of a CSP plant is the LEC or
LCOE levelized cost of energy. Still, obviously, the
modelling of the physical behavior of CSP plants and/or TES
is of extreme importance when performing research on those
topics.
Innumerous simulation tools have been developed for
designing CSP plants, comprising different software/code for
different components. In table 3 of [2] a summary of some of
these are presented. In section 4 of [7] a more detailed review
of various studies and respective software used to investigate
different CSP and TES configurations.
In [5] a MIP software package for analyzing CSP plants
with and without TES. That software is based on SAM,
developed by NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory
- USA), which maximizes revenues from energy sales, taking
into account various real-world market considerations, rather
than by using heuristic rules. This work showed that with TES
in CSP plants it is possible to achieve return on investments
above 100%, providing a strong motivation for their
implementation and further research and development.
Reference [25] provides a very interesting study of the
benefits of using CSP facilities with TES in conjunction with
combined cycle gas burners. This is called hybridization. Five
different CSP facilities (and 3 different solar multiples) were
considered and compared with a reference conventional fossilfired combined cycle plants. In particular, reductions on CO2
emissions and LEC were investigated. The results show that
the potential to reduce CO2 emissions is high, particularly
with large solar fields and high storage capacity. However, all
solar-hybrid plants show an increase in LEC with increasing
field sizes and storage capacities, which corroborate the
continuing the need for cost reduction and/or efficiency
enhancement in CSP plants in general.
Avila-Marin et al. [9] have performed a parametric analysis
for medium to large size (290-500MW) central receiver CSP
plants, comparing both two-tank molten salts storage systems
and DSG plants with a combination of 2 storage systems:
PCM for the steam generation and either concrete or molten
salts for sensible storage. The analysis comprises not only the
different technologies, but also different locations, different
plant sizes and different costs for components. The main
results are that both technologies demonstrate that, despite the
location, the larger the plants, the lower LEC. This suggests
that the, in the future, CSP plants with increasingly higher
installed capacity should be preferred. Two tank molten salts
storage minimizes the LEC of the plant using lower values of
gross turbine power (33-78 MWe) and very high TES (14-

12

16h). On the other hand, DSG plants minimize their LEC for
higher gross turbine power (67-122 MWe) and low values of
TES (2-5h). This provides insight in design choices and
operation strategies when considering these CSP plants. Also,
and in particular, it shows the potential and desirability for
using CSP plants with TES as base-load or at least
intermediate-load, rather than peak-load, further contributing
to power grid interconnection.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I would like to thank Professor Lus Filipe Mendes at IST
and Eng Joo Farinha Mendes and Eng Joo Cardoso at
LNEG for giving me this opportunity to do my masters thesis
on CSP with LNEG. I would also like in particular to thank
them for their patience and understanding.
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