Evaluation of solar thermal storage for base load electricity generation

In order to stabilize solar electric power production during the day and prolong the daily operating cycle for several hours in the nighttime, solar thermal power plants have the options of using either or both solar thermal storage and fossil fuel hybridization. The share of solar energy in the annual electricity production capacity of hybrid solar-fossil power plants without energy storage is only about 20%. As it follows from the computer simulations performed for base load electricity demand, a solar annual capacity as high as 70% can be attained by use of a reasonably large thermal storage capacity of 22 full load operating hours. In this study, the overall power system performance is analyzed with emphasis on energy storage characteristics promoting a high level of sustainability for solar termal electricity production. The basic system parameters, including thermal storage capacity, solar collector size, and annual average daily discharge time, are presented and discussed.