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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Techno-Economic Analysis of a Concentrating Solar Power Plant Using Redox-Active Metal Oxides as Heat Transfer Fluid and Storage Media

We present results for a one-dimensional quasi-steady-state thermodynamic model developed for a 111.7 MW e concentrating solar power (CSP) system using a redox-active metal oxide as the heat storage media and heat transfer agent integrated with a combined cycle air Brayton power block. In the energy charging and discharging processes, the metal oxide CaAl 0.2 Mn 0.8 O 2.9-δ (CAM28) undergoes a reversible, high temperature redox cycle including an endothermic oxygen-releasing reaction and exothermic oxygen-incorporation reaction. Concentrated solar radiation heats the redox-active oxide particles under partial vacuum to drive the reduction extent deeper for increased energy density at a fixed temperature, thereby increasing storage capacity while limiting the required on sun temperature. Direct counter-current contact of the reduced particles with compressed air from the Brayton compressor releases stored chemical and sensible energy, heating the air to 1,200°C at the turbine inlet while cooling and reoxidizing the particles. The cool oxidized particles recirculate through the solar receiver subsystem for another cycle of heating and reduction (oxygen release). We applied the techno-economic model to 1) size components, 2) examine intraday operation with varying solar insolation, 3) estimate annual performance characteristics over a simulated year, 4) estimate the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), and 5) perform sensitivity analyses to evaluate factors that affect performance and cost. Simulations use hourly solar radiation data from Barstow, California to assess the performance of a 111.7 MW e system with solar multiples (SMs) varying from 1.2 to 2.4 and storage capacities of 6–14 h. The baseline system with 6 h storage and SM of 1.8 has a capacity factor of 54.2%, an increase from 32.3% capacity factor with no storage, and an average annual energy efficiency of 20.6%. Calculations show a system with an output of 710 GWh e net electricity per year, 12 h storage, and SM of 2.4 to have an installed cost of $329 million, and an LCOE of 5.98 ¢/kWh e . This value meets the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot 2020 target of 6.0 ¢/kWh e ( U. S Department of Energy, 2012 ), but falls just shy of the 5.0 ¢/kWh e 2030 CSP target for dispatchable electricity ( U. S Department of Energy, 2017 ). The cost and performance results are minimally sensitive to most design parameters. However, a one-point change in the weighted annual cost of capital from 8 to 7% (better understood as a 12.5% change) translates directly to an 11% decrease (0.66 ¢/kWhe) in the LCOE.

Gorman, Brandon T.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Modeling receiver flux of commercial power tower concentrating solar power plants using ray tracing: a round-robin comparison of SolTrace, Solstice, and TieSOL

This study presents a multi-stage, cross-validation comparison of three software packages for Monte Carlo ray tracing (MCRT) applied to central tower concentrating solar power (CSP) systems. The three packages evaluated are: (1) SolTrace, an open-source tool developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL); (2) Solstice, an open-source program created by CNRS-PROMES and Meso-Star, with enhancements for CSP applications (called solsticepy) from the Australian National University; and (3) TieSOL, a commercial software developed by Tietronix. This investigation extends previous ray tracing comparisons by incorporating models of multi-facet heliostats within a commercial-scale solar field, taking into account zoned focal lengths and canting configurations. Receiver flux distributions were compared across the tools using a series of case studies, including single-heliostat scenarios, isolated blocking situations, and comprehensive full-field simulations. The case studies were designed to diagnose differences across the models at varying levels of complexity, and to identify and resolve discrepancies as additional parameters were introduced. Key factors examined in the analysis include sun positions, heliostat location, facet and canting focus, and aimpoint strategies. The comparison aims to improve the accuracy and reliability of these tools while providing benchmark cases for validating future optical modeling tools.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Demonstration of a multi-channel fluidized bed particle–supercritical carbon dioxide heat exchanger for concentrating solar applications

High-temperature thermal energy storage in oxide particles at temperatures above 600°C can couple concentrated solar energy with high-efficiency thermal power cycles to provide dispatchable solar-driven electricity. Challenges remain in developing cost-effective primary heat exchangers, which require expensive alloys, to extract the high-temperature thermal energy from the particles to power cycle fluids, such as supercritical CO 2 (sCO 2 ) in recuperated Brayton cycles. To explore one pathway for cost-effective, high-temperature particle heat exchangers, the current study demonstrates a shell-and-plate, particle–sCO 2 heat exchanger with narrow- channel fluidized beds coupled with micro-channel sCO 2 flows in the heat exchanger walls. This study evaluates the feasibility of multiple parallel, narrow-channel fluidized beds in shell-and-plate particle–sCO 2 HXs, to achieve high bed-wall heat fluxes at elevated temperatures. A reduced-order model simulates the narrow- channel, fluidized-bed particle–sCO 2 heat exchanger to design the fluidized bed geometry, in terms of depth, height, and number of channels,for a nominal 40-kWth heat exchanger at particle and sCO 2 inlet temperatures up to 600 °C and 400 °C respectively. The resulting shell-and-plate heat exchanger design operates with bubbling fluidization of the downward-flowing oxide particles to enhance bed-wall heat transfer. The heat exchanger core is fabricated with etched sCO 2 micro-channels in thin wall plates that are diffusion bonded to spacer frames to form the shell-and-plate structure with 12 parallel, fluidized bed channels, 10.4 mm deep. The heat exchanger is tested at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility at Sandia National Laboratories with CARBOBEAD HSP particles at design particle flow rates of 0.20 kg s –1 and inlet temperatures up to 525 °C. Results show that fluidization across multiple parallel channel beds can maintain uniform particle inventory with a common freeboard zone above the heat exchanger core. Bubbling fluidization improves particle–wall heat transfer coefficients but also increases axial dispersion of particle thermal energy, which lowers the log- mean temperature difference such that total heat transfer remains relatively constant to within ±10% over a broad range of fluidization gas velocities. The axial dispersion required particle and sCO 2 flow rates to be increased by 25% over model-designed conditions to achieve the targeted 40 kWth, which indicates the importance of incorporating axial dispersion into heat exchanger design models and of deploying bed structures to suppress it. Furthermore, this study demonstrates the feasibility and preferred fluidizing gas conditions for particle heat exchangers for releasing high-temperature thermal energy storage systems.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Elevating SolTrace's Capabilities for the Next Generation of Concentrating Solar Analysis

SolTrace is an open-source Monte Carlo ray tracing software developed at NREL. SolTrace can characterize concentrating solar thermal (CST) collector optical performance and is CST technology agnostic. Shown in Fig. 1, SolTrace is a foundational tool in NREL's CST system and component modeling suite. SolTrace's generic surface elements can flexibly model novel collector and receiver designs to predict spatial and temporal flux distributions - critical to understand for CST component design, performance prediction, and system integration. Since its initial development, SolTrace has over 1,650 references on Google Scholar, over 9,800 downloads since 2017, and has served the CST research and development community as a benchmark of 3rd party verification. SolTrace provides users with many options for defining surface shape and boundaries. However, SolTrace provides limited documentation which can result in a steep learning curve for new users. Additionally, SolTrace lacks the computational performance required to evaluate optical performance of a CST system over the course of a year and/or iteratively over design parameters in a timely manner. To address this, we are working towards a new release of SolTrace that enables increased computational throughput by implementing ray tracing acceleration structures and enabling GPU parallelization. Additionally, we are working to improve SolTrace's usability, accessibility, and maintainability by (1) automating solar position time-dependent simulation processes, (2) creating general CST collector templates of grouped elements, (3) updating the user interface to better visualize model inputs and outputs, and (4) creating a user support network through forums, "how to" videos, and documentation.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Photovoltaic device for enhancing power output of concentrating solar thermal power plants

A photovoltaic retrofit device for a concentrating solar thermal power plant having a parabolic trough reflector, and a fluid receiver with working fluid therein spaced from the reflector and positioned at a focal point of the reflector. The photovoltaic device includes a plurality of adjustable angle dichroic mirrors positioned between the parabolic trough reflector and the fluid receiver. A photovoltaic receiver assembly has multiple photovoltaic panels in angular relationship to each other. A photovoltaic temperature regulating system includes a fluid medium to regulate temperature of the photovoltaic panels.

Otanicar, Todd↗
DOE OSTI2022

Advanced Characterization of Particulate Flows for Concentrating Solar Power Applications

The overarching goal of this project was to gain a greater fundamental understanding of heat and mass transfer in particulate-media in concentrated solar power (CSP) applications for thermal energy storage (TES) and to disseminate results to support parallel Gen3 research initiatives. Project objectives were achieved through three planned project phases to systematically characterize the heat transfer and flow properties for particulate (granular) flows at elevated temperatures up to 800 °C. These objectives were accomplished using a combination of fundamental experimental measurements, modeling, and simplified flow experiments over a range of temperatures. This work addressed a serious gap within the field related to the understanding and modeling of granular flow behavior and the related heat transfer at different temperatures, which directly correspond to the operating points of CSP applications which use particles for heat storage.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Binder Jet Additive Manufacturing Process and Material Characterization for High Temperature Heat Exchangers Used in Concentrated Solar Power Applications

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Sunshot 2030 initiative has a goal of reducing the cost of concentrating solar power (CSP) to 5 cents per kWh for baseload power plants. One of the potential pathways to this goal includes a reduction in the cost of the supercritical CO2 (sCO2) power block to 0.9 cents per kWh. Recuperators—high and low temperatures, used in the sCO2 power cycle, contribute to >50% of the cost of the power cycle. This work studies the feasibility towards a ≥10% cost reduction for High Temperature Recuperators (HTR) used in the sCO2 power cycle. One way to address the cost reduction is by leveraging low-cost additive manufacturing, specifically, Binder Jet Additive Manufacturing (BJAM) to 3D print HTRs at scale. This study focuses on the development of a BJAM process towards 3D printing HTR cores using Stainless Steel alloy 316L (SS316L). To evaluate the suitability of the BJ process towards the HTR, high level specifications of the application are translated to materials capability requirements. Subsequently, at-temperature materials testing is conducted on as-printed and sintered additively manufactured coupons. Data from the coupons are compared against cast and wrought SS316L data obtained from the literature. Results show that the tensile properties from the BJ process compare well against cast properties. Furthermore, a baseline analysis of creep testing data is established for the BJ process, and insights are drawn from the results towards future improvements of the process.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Analysis and Optimization of the Recompression Cycle with High Temperature Recuperator Bypass for Concentrating Solar Power Applications

This work analyzes the sCO2 recompression with high temperature recuperator (HTR) bypass power cycle for use in concentrating solar power (CSP) systems. CSP operation differs from other thermal power plants in that CSP must balance between maximizing the heat transfer fluid (HTF) temperature difference and maximizing the cycle thermal efficiency, which typically are inversely related. Large HTF temperature differences reduce the size and cost of thermal energy storage (TES), improve the solar receiver efficiency, and require lower mass flow rates that reduce pumping power required to elevate the HTF to the receiver. The recompression cycle with HTR bypass potentially offers improved thermal efficiency with larger HTF temperature differences as compared to the recompression cycle, and it has fewer turbomachinery components than the partial cooling cycle. The recompression with HTR bypass cycle adds a second lower temperature primary heat exchanger which transfers heat from the HTF to the fraction of sCO2 flow that bypasses the HTR. We developed a model to compare the recompression with HTR bypass cycle to the recompression and partial cooling cycles. A sweep of design parameters including bypass fraction, recompression fraction, recuperator conductance, and pressure ratio is used to form a pareto-optimal front with the cycle thermal efficiency and HTF temperature difference as objectives. An optimization routine has also been developed to find optimal design point parameters for a target HTF temperature difference. The performance of the recompression with HTR bypass cycle is compared with recompression and partial cooling cycles.

concentrating solar power↗
DOE OSTI2025

Deployment Potential of Concentrating Solar Power Technologies in California

As states within the United States respond to future grid development goals, there is a growing demand for reliable and resilient nighttime generation that can be addressed by low-cost, long-duration energy storage solutions. This report studies the potential of including concentrating solar power (CSP) in the technology mix to support California’s goals as defined in Senate Bill 100. A joint agency report study that determined potential pathways to achieve the renewable portfolio standard set by the bill did not include CSP, and our work provides information that could be used as a follow-up. This study uses a capacity expansion model configured to have nodal spatial fidelity in California and balancing-area fidelity in the Western Interconnection outside of California. The authors discovered that by applying current technology cost projections CSP fulfills nearly 15% of the annual load while representing just 6% of total installed capacity in 2045, replacing approximately 30 GWe of wind, solar PV, and standalone batteries compared to a scenario without CSP included. The deployment of CSP in the results is sensitive to the technology’s cost, which highlights the importance of meeting cost targets in 2030 and beyond to enable the technology’s potential contribution to California’s carbon reduction goals.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Gen 3 Particle Pilot Plant (G3P3) -- High-Temperature Particle System for Concentrating Solar Power (Phases 1 and 2)

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office initiated the Generation 3 Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) program to achieve higher operating temperatures (>700 °C) to enable next-generation CSP high-temperature power cycles such as the supercritical CO 2 (sCO2) Brayton Cycle. Three teams were selected to pursue high-temperature gas, liquid, and solid pathways for the heat-transfer media. Phases 1 and 2, which lasted from 2018 – 2020, consisted of design, modeling, and testing activities to further de-risk each of the technologies and develop a design for construction, commissioning, and operation of a pilot-scale facility in Phase 3 (2021 – 2024). This report summarizes the activities in Phases 1 and 2 for the solid-particle pathway led by Sandia National Laboratories. In Phases 1 and 2, Sandia successfully de-risked key elements of the proposed Gen 3 Particle Pilot Plant (G3P3) by improving the design, operation, and performance of key particle component technologies including the receiver, storage bins, particle-to-sCO2 heat exchanger, particle lift, and data acquisition and controls. Modeling and testing of critical components have led to optimized designs that meet desired performance metrics. Detailed drawings, piping and instrumentation diagrams, and process flow diagrams were generated for the integrated system, and structural analyses of the assembled tower structure were performed to demonstrate compliance with relevant codes and standards. Instrumentation and control systems of key subsystems were also demonstrated. Together with Bridgers & Paxton, Bohannan Huston, and Sandia Facilities, we have completed a 100% G3P3 tower design package with stamped engineering drawings suitable for construction bid in Phase 3.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Cost of Using Laser Powder Bed Fusion to Fabricate a Molten Salt-to-Supercritial Carbon Dioxide Heat Exchanger for Concentrating Solar Power

Advances in manufacturing technologies and materials are crucial to the commercial deployment of energy technologies. We present the case of concentrating solar power (CSP) with molten salt (MS) thermal storage, where low-cost, high-efficiency heat exchangers (HXs) are needed to achieve cost competitiveness. Here, the materials required to tolerate the extreme operating conditions in CSP systems make it difficult or infeasible to produce them using conventional manufacturing processes. Although it is technically possible to produce HXs with adequate performance using additive manufacturing, specifically laser powder bed fusion (LPBF), here we assess whether doing so is cost-effective. We describe a process-based cost model (PBCM) to estimate the cost of fabricating a MS-to-supercritical carbon dioxide HX using LPBF. The PBCM is designed to identify modifications to designs, process choices, and manufacturing innovations that have the greatest effect on manufacturing cost. Our PBCM identified HX design and LPBF process modifications that reduced projected HX cost from $\$750$ per kilo-Watt thermal (kW-th) ($\$8$ /cm 3 ) to $\$350$ /kW-th ($\$6/$ cm 3 ) using currently available LPBF technology, and down to $\$220$ /kW-th ($\$4$ /cm 3 ) with improvements in LPBF technology that are likely to be achieved in the near term. The PBCM also informed a redesign of the HX design that reduced projected costs to $\$140$ –160/kW-th ($\$3$ /cm 3 ).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

An Educational Program on Concentrated Solar Power and Heliostats for Power Generation and Industrial Processes

The objective of this project was to design and implement a comprehensive educational and applied research program in Concentrated Solar Thermal Power (CSTP) and heliostat technologies at Northeastern University. In alignment with the U.S. Department of Energy's Heliostat Consortium (HelioCon) goals, the project aimed to expand student and public understanding of CSTP systems while simultaneously contributing to workforce development and the broader decarbonization strategy. A particular emphasis was placed on integrating hands-on student design projects and publicly disseminating educational content relevant to CSTP systems. The project addressed a critical gap in renewable energy education: CSTP and heliostats, despite their importance in utility-scale solar energy, are rarely included in standard mechanical engineering programs. This project established new pathways for students to engage with the topic through the creation of a 4-credit graduate/senior elective course, development of five industry-facing short courses, and the inclusion of CSTP-based capstone design projects. Over two academic years, 36 students across six senior design teams developed and tested technologies such as deformable heliostats, beacon-based tracking systems, and solar-powered pyrolizers for biomass-to-biochar conversion. Concurrently, 30 undergraduate and graduate students were enrolled in the new academic course centered around CSTP principles. To ensure the relevance and accessibility of the short course content, the project team engaged with industry professionals, technical policy stakeholders, and potential course participants through structured surveys and informal consultations. Feedback from 28 respondents guided the structure, length, and delivery format of the courses - resulting in a modular design broken into five workshops. The feedback emphasized the need for flexible, asynchronous delivery and practical case studies, particularly in areas such as heliostat control, thermal storage, and solar fuel production. This engagement helped align the courses with the evolving knowledge demands of the renewable energy workforce and ensured that participants from both technical and policy backgrounds could meaningfully benefit from the material. The research and educational activities advanced the understanding of heliostat control systems, optical performance under misalignment, and thermal system integration in solar-driven pyrolysis applications. Methods and designs explored in this project proved to be both technically effective and economically feasible at the lab scale. Prototypes were constructed using commercially available components and custom-fabricated elements, demonstrating that meaningful performance improvements can be achieved with modest material and fabrication costs, supporting the feasibility of student-led research in this field. The public benefit of this project is twofold. First, it cultivates a pipeline of engineers trained to be familiar with CSTP principles, an essential workforce need identified by the Department of Energy for achieving its 2030 cost and deployment targets. Second, it contributes openly accessible educational materials, course content, and experimental frameworks to the broader community, enabling other institutions to adopt or adapt similar programming. Through outreach activities, curriculum integration, and technical exposure, this project contributes to a more informed and capable renewable energy workforce while supporting innovation in heliostat and CSTP system design. A new technical report is being prepared to document the development of the course and its outcomes, with plans to publish it in the ASME Open Access Journal of Engineering to ensure global accessibility, free of cost.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Two-Fluid and Discrete Element Modeling of a Parallel Plate Fluidized Bed Heat Exchanger for Concentrating Solar Power

A novel high-temperature particle solar receiver is developed using a light trapping planar cavity configuration. As particles fall through the cavity, the concentrated solar radiation warms the boundaries of the receiver and in turn heats the particles. Particles flow through the system, forming a fluidized bed at the lower section, leaving the system from the bottom at a constant flowrate. Air is introduced to the system as the fluidizing medium to improve particle heat transfer and mixing. A laboratory scale cavity receiver is built by collaborators at the Colorado School of Mines and their data are used for model validation. In this experimental setup, near IR quartz lamp is used to provide flux to the vertical wall of the heat exchanger. The system is modeled using the discrete element method and a continuum two-fluid method. The computational model matches the experimental system size and the particle size distribution is assumed monodisperse. A new continuum conduction model that accounts for the effects of solid concentration is implemented, and the heat flux boundary condition matches the experimental setup. Radiative heat transfer is estimated using a widely used correlation during the post-processing step to determine an overall heat transfer coefficient. The model is validated against testing data and achieves less than 30% discrepancy and a heat transfer coefficient greater than 1000 W/m2 K.

concentrating solar power↗
DOE OSTI2022

Dispatch optimization of a concentrating solar power system under uncertain solar irradiance and energy prices

The integration of thermal energy storage into a concentrating solar power system allows for mitigating some of the risk associated with uncertain solar irradiance and uncertain energy prices. We solve a 48 h dispatch optimization model with continually updated conditional point forecasts of both direct normal irradiance (DNI) and electricity prices with a rolling-horizon scheme at hourly resolution over the course of a year. Joint, conditional forecasts for DNI and prices are formed using an autoregressive moving-average time series model with exogenous weather predictors. We guide dispatch using a mixed-integer programming model, but in order to evaluate performance we use the System Advisor Model (SAM) of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. SAM is a techno-economic simulation model that accounts for plant thermodynamics with higher fidelity. Our conditional DNI forecasts improve annual revenue by 4%–12% over using historical forecasts based on data from previous years. Conditional price forecasts improve annual revenue by 6%–19% in the real-time market over analogous historical forecasts. Updating these forecasts every six hours, rather than every 24 h, further improves annual revenue by 5%–6%. Here, we also investigate a method that values terminal inventory in our dispatch optimization model, again when used in a rolling-horizon scheme.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Modeling of Combined Lead Fast Reactor and Concentrating Solar Power Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Cycles to Demonstrate Feasibility, Efficiency Gains, and Cost Reductions

Solar power has innate issues with weather, grid demand and time of day, which can be mitigated through use of thermal energy storage for concentrating solar power (CSP). Nuclear reactors, including lead-cooled fast reactors (LFRs), can adjust power output according to demand; but with high fixed costs and low operating costs, there may not be sufficient economic incentive to make this worthwhile. We investigate potential synergies through coupling CSP and LFR together in a single supercritical CO 2 Brayton cycle and/or using the same thermal energy storage. Combining these cycles allows for the LFR to thermally charge the salt storage in the CSP cycle during low-demand periods to be dispatched when grid demand increases. The LFR/CSP coupling into one cycle is modeled to find the preferred location of the LFR heat exchanger, CSP heat exchanger, sCO 2 -to-salt heat exchanger (C2S), turbines, and recuperators within the supercritical CO 2 Brayton cycle. Three cycle configurations have been studied: two-cycle configuration, which uses CSP and LFR heat for dedicated turbocompressors, has the highest efficiencies but with less component synergies; a combined cycle with CSP and LFR heat sources in parallel is the simplest with the lowest efficiencies; and a combined cycle with separate high-temperature recuperators for both the CSP and LFR is a compromise between efficiency and component synergies. Additionally, four thermal energy storage charging techniques are studied: the turbine positioned before C2S, requiring a high LFR outlet temperature for viability; the turbine after the C2S, reducing turbine inlet temperature and therefore power; the turbine parallel to the C2S producing moderate efficiency; and a dedicated circulator loop. While all configurations have pros and cons, use of a single cycle offers component synergies with limited efficiency penalty. Using a turbine in parallel with the C2S heat exchanger is feasible but results in a low charging efficiency, while a dedicated circulator loop offers flexibility and near-perfect heat storage efficiency but increasing cost with additional cycle components.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Integrating Concentrating Solar Power Technologies into the Hybrid Optimization and Performance Platform (HOPP)

As the world increases renewable energy deployment, there is an increasing interest in hybridizing various generation and storage technologies to maximize net benefit to the developer and/or off-taker. A particularly interesting combination of renewable technologies is concentrating solar power (CSP) with thermal energy storage (TES), photovoltaics (PV), and electrochemical battery energy storage (BESS). Due to the system complexity of CSP technology, it is difficult to evaluate the technological and financial performance of a CSP-PV hybrid system without detailed modeling of annual operations. To address this challenge, we have developed a modeling framework for evaluating the performance and financial viability of CSP systems hybridized with PV and battery technologies. This modeling effort incorporates CSP tower and trough systems into an existing modeling tool recently developed by NREL referred to as the Hybrid Optimization and Performance Platform (HOPP). This report outlines the modeling methodology as well as preliminary results from example case studies conducted using the model. The methodology describes: (i) the integration of CSP tower and troughs into HOPP using python interfaces to access System Advisor Model (SAM) underlining technology models, (ii) the mathematical formulation of the mixed integer linear program dispatch optimization model which optimizes operations of storage asset to either maximize system revenue or minimize operating cost while load following, (iii) the design analysis methods implemented within HOPP, and (iv) simulation clustering for the purposes of reducing computational expense. We exercise the model using a case study of a future scenario where we assume (i) CSP and PV technologies achieve the 2030 cost targets provided by the Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), (ii) battery costs reduce to the 2030 mid cost projection presented by NREL. Lastly, (iii) electricity prices for southern California in 2030 are provided by NREL's Cambium database, and (iv) a capacity payment of $150/kW-yr based on the system capacity factor during the to 100 net-load hours.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗