SMARTCSP: The Industry 4.0 approach for an effective CSP cost reduction

Abstract:

Concentrated solar power (CSP), and specifically solar thermal power plants provide green and dispatchable power by means of thermal energy storage (TES) and/or hybridization. Nevertheless, there are few commercial plants (6.2 GW around the world) and CSP technologies are still in an incipient stage of technological development with a high potential for improvement. Over the last years, cost-cutting strategies for CSP technology have been based on economies of scale and optimization of what were considered key elements in the system. However, in order to achieve faster and more significant cost reductions, drastic changes are needed, which must be based on innovation and technological development. In fact, the degree of technological maturity remains low compared to photovoltaics and wind power. CSP industry behaves isolated, lacking the capacity to take advantage of innovations included in other industrial sectors. This trend should change in order to move from incremental improvements to real breakthroughs. Today CSP plants and components incorporate a low degree of intelligence and autonomy that makes it expensive and makes quality control difficult. As an example:

Año de publicación:

2018

Keywords:

Fuente:

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