Multi-period management and sensibility analysis of the model of a solar tower power plant using molten salt

Solar power is nowadays a promising solution to the energy supply problem, at least in the countries of the sunbelt or for solutions of delocalized production as the Desertec project . Due to the transient nature of solar irradiance, some storage techniques are though necessary to ensure electricity production during night or cloudy periods. In the continuation of the work presented in December 2009 [4], a coupled model of a solar tower power plant using a molten salt storage system and a conventional Rankine cycle is presented. The former plant model is coupled with the heliostat field calculation model realized by G. Augsburger [1]. The resulting coupled model is submitted to a sensibility analysis acting on several parameters. The sensibility analysis, as well as the coupling itself, is done using an in-house routine called Osmose, developed by R. Bolliger [2]. The general results of the sensibility analysis are presented in this report to give an overview of the model capabilities. In the future, the model is to be used to run a thermo-economic optimization on a solar tower power plant using an in-house genetic algorithm implemented into Osmose.