CSP plant combined with natural gas

Dear Kika,

You can use the fossil backup inputs to model a parabolic trough system with a natural gas boiler that provides heat to supplement solar heat. You cannot explicitly set the boiler's output as a percentage of the total, but you can run several simulations with different fossil fill fractions until the adjust the boiler inputs until the boiler output is close to the value you desire.

For the empirical trough model, set the fossil fill fraction on the Thermal Storage page, and use the annual fuel usage output as a measure of the fossil backup system's energy production. The boiler efficiency is an input on the Power Block page. For a more detailed analysis, you can use the hourly fossil thermal power produced output.

Best regards,
Paul.