Capital cost reduction potential in central tower receiver based CSP plant: A case study for India

Amongst the renewable energy-based electricity generation options, the capital cost of concentrating solar power (CSP) plants is relatively higher. To make Central Tower Receiver (CTR) based CSP plants financially viable in India, different avenues of capital cost reduction need to be explored. For this purpose, different cost reduction possibilities such as emerging heliostat design, indigenization possibilities of key components, and the integration of advanced power blocks based on high-temperature (>700 °C) supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) Brayton cycle have been investigated. A component-wise cost reduction potential has been estimated for each subsystem of 100 MW CTR based CSP plant with provision of 12.0 h of thermal energy storage. The findings indicate that with adoption of emerging design of heliostat and increasing the share of indigenized components while retaining the current state-of-the-art steam-based power block, leads to likely reduction in capital cost by 22.1 %. This reduction is significant for improving the competitiveness of CSP technology, especially in regions with high direct normal irradiance.