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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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.
2022-06-01
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Series: | Energy Storage and Saving |
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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. |
first_indexed | 2024-04-12T01:03:55Z |
format | Article |
id | doaj.art-e39018275137430d9cda9e57d960733c |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 2772-6835 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-04-12T01:03:55Z |
publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
publisher | KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. |
record_format | Article |
series | Energy Storage and Saving |
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 |
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