R&D on improving O&M in CSP plants. Dr. Marcelino Sánchez. - November,

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1 R&D on improving O&M in CSP plants. Dr. Marcelino Sánchez - November,

2 í n d i c e 1 Need of R&D for O&M improvement in CSP Plants 2 Current R&D activities in O&M improvement carried out by CENER 3 Additional R&D Needs to improve O&M 4 Conclusions

3 1 Need of R&D for O&M improvement in CSP Plants

4 1. Need of R&D for O&M improvement in CSP Plants Cost references from current projects c /kwh c /kwh 35 Source: ESTELA Spain South Africa India Israel Morocco U.S.A 4

5 1. Need of R&D for O&M improvement in CSP Plants Cost references from current projects c /kwh c /kwh 35 Source: ESTELA Source: Department of Energy & Climate Change (UK) Nuclear energy price corresponding to initial agreement reached on new nuclear power station at Hinkley Spain South Africa India Israel Morocco U.S.A 5

6 1. Need of R&D for O&M improvement in CSP Plants A CSP plant will last for years LOAN PERIOD GOLDEN YEARS CSP reference price Pool price CSP final price? O & M cost CSP plant lifetime 30, 40, 50? O&M cost includes everything to keep the plant in as-new condition for 30 + years When CAPEX is written down the remaining marginal cost is actually below Pool price providing and improvement to long term economic of the electrical system. This marginal cost is mainly due to O&M 6

7 1. Need of R&D for O&M improvement in CSP Plants Market needs Current CSP Market is dominated by Parabolic Trough technology Installed capacity (MW) in operation Installed capacity (MW) under construction TOTAL: 2971 MW Source: CSP Today Global Tracker (Oct 2013) TOTAL: 2247 MW 7

8 1. Need of R&D for O&M improvement in CSP Plants Market needs Total capacity under development (MW) [1] TOTAL: MW Although parabolic trough based power plants are at the moment the dominant concept at commercial level, the central receiver (or power tower) technology has by far more potential in terms of efficiency and cost reduction [1] Source: CSP Today Global Tracker (Oct. 2013) 8

9 2 Current R&D activities in O&M improvement carried out by CENER

10 2. Current R&D activities in O&M carried out by CENER Analysis of current situation Most CSP Plants currently under operation and construction belong to Parabolic trough (PT) technology. Current R&D Efforts on supporting CSP industry are mainly focused in improving O&M of PT plants in order to reduce final electricity cost. CENER is currently working in: A. Three projects regarding PT technology: On site inspection of Parabolic Trough Receivers FOCuS (Fringe Optical Characterization of Surfaces) Development of an on line hydrogen detection system to enhance PT plants performance B.One project regarding Central Receiver technology: Automatic calibration of heliostat fields FOCuS (Fringe Optical Characterization of Surfaces) 10

11 2. Current R&D activities in O&M carried out by CENER On site inspection of Parabolic Trough Receivers The National Renewable Energy Centre (CENER) has developed an inspection system called ITR (Inspection Receiver Tubes) to measure the surface glass temperature of receiver tubes in CSP thermal solar plants. This development has been done in order to facilitate performing maintenance operations on the surveillance state of receiver tubes and its degradation over time mainly due to the vacuum losses inside the tubes PromedioMedia_1 PromedioMedia_

12 2. Current R&D activities in O&M carried out by CENER On site inspection of Parabolic Trough Receivers The inspection system ITR performs measurements of the glass surface temperature of the receiver tubes on a moving vehicle in a fast thermographic process. A software has been developed to calculate the temperature of each glass tube from videos of IR thermography images.. Depending on the temperature measurement value, the software classifies tubes in three different states corresponding to three colours: green (ok), orange (regular) and red (not ok). The vehicle goes parallel to the direction of the halfloop at a maximum distance of 4-5 m and approximately at km/h. 12

13 2. Current R&D activities in O&M carried out by CENER FOCuS Project (Fringe Optical Characterization of Surfaces) Goal FOCuS Tool (Fringe Optical Characterization of Surfaces) is being developed to improve the qualification of industrial mirror production and operating solar collectors in solar power plants. This technique enhances considerably some difficult aspects of current surface qualification techniques: complex arrangements; long measurement times and sometimes limited spatial resolution. Fringe Reflection Layout Description The Fringe Reflection technique is considered to be an effective, reliable and robust non-contact optical method for characterizing specular surfaces. Results generated by the tool offer quality parameters such as: RMS Slope Deviation in x-direction (SDx), RMS Slope Deviation in y-direction (SDy) and Intercept Factor Map (IC) by a ray trace analysis. FOCuS Tool main features are: High spatial resolution (more than 1 million points per facet). Short measurement time. Easy set-up for mirror production lines and solar plants qualification 13

14 2. Current R&D activities in O&M carried out by CENER FOCuS Project (Fringe Optical Characterization of Surfaces) FOCuS Measurement Summary Conclusions The obtained statistical values can be used for comparison with standard parameters for sample qualification. Local values can be used for detection of faulty areas in the mirror. The developed FOCuS Tool has proven to obtain effectively a detail map of the local slope deviation of the mirror analyzed, as well as the Intercept Factor map of the corresponding mirror. Main Achievements and future work Focus has been applied successfully at lab scale and it is currently fully operational at CENER laboratories. Focus application to on site characterization of PT Collectors is been developed by CENER in collaboration with UNAM, First tests on real scale have been ENEA within SFERA Project Parabolic trough mirror modules characterization by focus tool p

15 2. Current R&D activities in O&M carried out by CENER Development of an on line hydrogen detection system to enhance PT plants performance Goal The goal of the project is to design and build a sensor able to detect and quantify the presence of hydrogen in a heat transfer oil in Concentrating solar plants (CSP) on line. Why? What is the problem? Receiver efficiency decrease due to Vacuum loss. Molecular hydrogen permeation causes the thermal losses drastically up to 2.9 times that from standard receiver. (*). What is the proposed solution? Design and development of an on-line hydrogen detection system which be able to detect its presence before the problem is too late. This new online sensor is the unique real solution that makes it possible to perform continuous monitoring of the oil circuit of a Parabolic Trough solar plant thus enhancing the final plant performance. The oil circuit monitoring also enables preventive maintenance and development of strategies in order to minimize O&M costs, providing an added value to the benefits derived from its integration in the circuit. This system is protected by a patent (P Method of detection and quantification of hydrogen in a heat transfer oil) that ensures its uniqueness in the market. (*)Source: N. Benz et al. Advances in receiver technology for parabolic trough. 15

16 2. Current R&D activities in O&M carried out by CENER Heliostat calibration Automatic calibration of heliostat fields Current status No commercially ready solution available. Manual adjustment of each heliostat. Does not scale well for large amounts of small heliostats. CENER and IK-4 TEKNIKER are working together to develop a new approach for a computer vision based online calibration system: Facet Use of active targets to estimate the actual orientation of each heliostat and adjust their tracking accordingly. Minimal interference with plant operation by ability to calibrate during night time. Reflected target Designed to calibrate large amounts of heliostats in parallel. Fast procedure to allow frequent re-calibration, thus reducing requirements (and costs) on drive mechanism. Currently in testing with the expectation to reach prototype stage during

17 2. Current R&D activities in O&M carried out by CENER Heliostat calibration Impact onto O&M Automatic calibration Reduces user interaction to a minimum. Quality is defined by specification and not by operator, i.e. not just good enough. Frequent calibration Higher efficiency of the solar field (less spillage) Better aiming strategies as incident receiver flux can be predicted with higher precision. Use of low cost drive mechanisms as drift errors are frequently corrected. Burned border of cavity receiver due to aiming errors Analyze error pattern of drive mechanism and possibly predict and compensate tracking errors. 17

18 3 Additional R&D needs to improve O&M

19 3. Additional R&D needs to improve O&M Additional R& D Needs to Improve O&M common to all technologies 1. Developments of New tools for forecasting and Nowcasting. CENER is currently involved in the project DNI CAST Direct Normal Irradiance Nowcasting methods for optimized operation of concentrating solar technologies funded by EU-FP7 2. Methodology for analyzing and predicting degradation and lifetime. CENER is currently participating in the creation of national and international standards for concentrating solar thermal power plants in the committees AEN/CTN 206/SC Thermoelectric Solar Energy Systems (IEC TC 117) Solar thermal electric plants 3. Advanced Cleaning Systems ( higher degree of automation, low water use). Additional R& D Needs to Improve O&M In Central Receiver 1. On line Flux measurement in commercial towers. CENER is currently coordinating the WP12 Point focusing STE Technologies of the Project STAGE-STE Scientific and Technological Alliance for Guaranteeing the European Excellence in Concentrating Solar Thermal Energy funded by EU-FP7 2. Measurement and modeling of the Atmospheric Attenuation ATM. 19

20 3. Additional R&D needs to improve O&M Real-time automated measurement and modeling of atmospheric attenuation in central receiver Power plants (Solar Towers) Current status Current models show important differences when estimating ATM losses in Central Receiver technology even in clear days. This fact has a strong impact on technology risk. Main goal Development of the required equipment and the methodology for measurement, characterization and accurate estimation of the Atmospheric attenuation in central receiver solar power plants Specific goals Development of a real time and automated measurement system of solar radiation attenuation in typical distances of central receiver solar power plants. Start-up of a robust and simple real time and automated measurement system of mirror soiling rates. Development of universal mathematical models for atmospheric attenuation and mirror soiling as a function of different sets of input variables. 20

21 4 Conclusions

22 4. Conclusions Many R&D activities have been identified in order to improve O& M in CSP plants. O&M cost will become the major cost of electricity from CSP plants once the loan has been paid R&D can have strong influence in O&M improvements leading to significant cost reduction of final electricity price. Increasing operational life of the plant Enhancing plant performance along operational life Reducing annual cost of O&M CSP will become much more competitive by improving O&M trough R&D projects CENER is currently working in several R&D projects aiming to reduce O&M cost and final cost of solar electricity. 22

23 Thank you!!! Marcelino Sánchez, Ph.D.