Radiative cooling and cold storage for concentrated solar power plants

Concentrated solar power (CSP) plants are generally located in solar-abundant yet hot and water-stressed locations. In such circumstances, efficient but water-intensive once-through wet cooling and water-free but inefficient air cooling are both unfavorable. Considering both thermal efficiency and w...

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Main Authors: Ablimit Aili, Gang Tan, Xiaobo Yin, Ronggui Yang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. 2022-06-01
Series:Energy Storage and Saving
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772683522000024
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author Ablimit Aili
Gang Tan
Xiaobo Yin
Ronggui Yang
author_facet Ablimit Aili
Gang Tan
Xiaobo Yin
Ronggui Yang
author_sort Ablimit Aili
collection DOAJ
description Concentrated solar power (CSP) plants are generally located in solar-abundant yet hot and water-stressed locations. In such circumstances, efficient but water-intensive once-through wet cooling and water-free but inefficient air cooling are both unfavorable. Considering both thermal efficiency and water availability/temperature, recirculating evaporative cooling is a better alternative. However, evaporative cooling still loses large amounts of water into the atmosphere and thus requires a nonstop water supply. Therefore, simultaneously reducing water loss and maintaining thermal efficiency requires efficient means of supplemental cooling for CSP plants. Following our previous work on scalable radiative cooling films and a kW-scale radiative cooling system, we explore the potential of consumptive water use reduction in recirculating wet-cooled CSP plants by integrating supplemental radiative cooling and cold storage. Through modeling of a reference CSP plant with a supplemental radiative cooling system as large as the plant solar field, the results show that 40%–60% of the annual consumptive water use can be potentially reduced in the hot southwestern U.S. region with daytime-only radiative cooling, whereas the annual potential water saving can be as much as 65%–85% if the radiative cooling system works both day and night with cold storage.
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spelling doaj.art-e39018275137430d9cda9e57d960733c2022-12-22T03:54:22ZengKeAi Communications Co., Ltd.Energy Storage and Saving2772-68352022-06-011293101Radiative cooling and cold storage for concentrated solar power plantsAblimit Aili0Gang Tan1Xiaobo Yin2Ronggui Yang3Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USADepartment of Civil and Architectural Engineering, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USADepartment of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USASchool of Energy and Power Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China; State Key Laboratory of Coal Combustion, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China; Corresponding author.Concentrated solar power (CSP) plants are generally located in solar-abundant yet hot and water-stressed locations. In such circumstances, efficient but water-intensive once-through wet cooling and water-free but inefficient air cooling are both unfavorable. Considering both thermal efficiency and water availability/temperature, recirculating evaporative cooling is a better alternative. However, evaporative cooling still loses large amounts of water into the atmosphere and thus requires a nonstop water supply. Therefore, simultaneously reducing water loss and maintaining thermal efficiency requires efficient means of supplemental cooling for CSP plants. Following our previous work on scalable radiative cooling films and a kW-scale radiative cooling system, we explore the potential of consumptive water use reduction in recirculating wet-cooled CSP plants by integrating supplemental radiative cooling and cold storage. Through modeling of a reference CSP plant with a supplemental radiative cooling system as large as the plant solar field, the results show that 40%–60% of the annual consumptive water use can be potentially reduced in the hot southwestern U.S. region with daytime-only radiative cooling, whereas the annual potential water saving can be as much as 65%–85% if the radiative cooling system works both day and night with cold storage.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772683522000024Radiative coolingPower plant coolingConcentrated solar powerWater saving
spellingShingle Ablimit Aili
Gang Tan
Xiaobo Yin
Ronggui Yang
Radiative cooling and cold storage for concentrated solar power plants
Energy Storage and Saving
Radiative cooling
Power plant cooling
Concentrated solar power
Water saving
title Radiative cooling and cold storage for concentrated solar power plants
title_full Radiative cooling and cold storage for concentrated solar power plants
title_fullStr Radiative cooling and cold storage for concentrated solar power plants
title_full_unstemmed Radiative cooling and cold storage for concentrated solar power plants
title_short Radiative cooling and cold storage for concentrated solar power plants
title_sort radiative cooling and cold storage for concentrated solar power plants
topic Radiative cooling
Power plant cooling
Concentrated solar power
Water saving
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772683522000024
work_keys_str_mv AT ablimitaili radiativecoolingandcoldstorageforconcentratedsolarpowerplants
AT gangtan radiativecoolingandcoldstorageforconcentratedsolarpowerplants
AT xiaoboyin radiativecoolingandcoldstorageforconcentratedsolarpowerplants
AT rongguiyang radiativecoolingandcoldstorageforconcentratedsolarpowerplants