Industrial-scale prototype of cTES for water consumption reduction and power block efficiency improvement - SOLWATT PROJECT

SOLWATT project started in May 2018 and involve 9 partners (4 research organizations CEA, CIEMAT, CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY and DLR- and 5 industrial partners TSK, BRIGHTSOURCE, FENIKS, RIOGLASS and TECKNIKER). SOLWATT project is devoted to the reduction of water consumption in CSP power plant. For this purpose, mirror field cleaning, turbine condenser cooling and water recovery are considered. Present paper is devoted more particularly to the cTES industrial prototype (cold thermal energy storage) used to reduce the water consumption related to condenser cooling. The cTES is based on a single-media thermocline storage used to partially or totally store the heat flow from the condenser when ambient temperatures are too high. Storage discharge is performed during the night. A 1000 m³ cTES prototype will be designed and constructed in the 50 MWe La Africana CSP power plant.