Techno-Economic Assessment of Hybrid PV and CST Systems
Abstract
Detailed network analysis conducted using a comprehensive range of concentrated solar thermal (CST) plants with varying storage sizes at 48 sites in the Australian electricity networks has identified that the best option for CST is a storage capacity of around 15 hours. Subsequently, a more detailed techno-economic study was conducted for few locations that had been found to be suitable for CST implementation. A review of the engineering and site practicalities for these sites determined that the optimal plant size for implementation appeared to be 125MWe (net) with 15 hours of storage. This study aims to find the most cost-efficient hybrid CST and PV system that matches the performance of the optimized CST system near Tom Price, WA (annual DNI =7.50 kWh/m2/day, annual generation of 983,120 MWh, with the expected LCOE of 9.92 c/kWh).