Solarfield thermal energy output parabolic trough

Hi,

for my masterthesis, I simulated a parabolic trough power plant. Now I want to compare my results with those of SAM to see if they match. But since my solarfield is simulated seperatly(without simultaneous simulation of TES and power cycle) I don't know which SAM variables to look at. There is a difference between solarfield thermal output and thermal power send to powercycle. Can somebody tell me which is the one I should take and what is the difference between them.

Thanks and have a nice week!

Kind regards,

Marco

Please see this post for a discussion of how to isolate the solar field's thermal output for the physical trough model.

For a system with no storage and no fossil backup, the energy to the power block will be the same as the solar field thermal output except for hours when the solar field output is insufficient to drive the power block at its design point -- for those hours, energy to power block will be zero. If you are only interested in the solar field output, you can ignore this fact.

If you size the power block to be much larger than would be appropriate for your solar field area, the thermal energy to the power block will always be zero.

If you use the trough model in this way, be sure to use Option 1 on the Solar Field page to specify the field area in square meters, rather than as a solar multiple (Option 1).

One more point: Because SAM's financial model is for an electric power generation project, if the power cycle electric output is zero, the financial model results will be meaningless.

Best regards,
Paul.

Hi Paul, thanks for your answer.

Two more question:

How can I deactivate the fossil backup?
Is it useful to set the power block startup time to zero, since this fact isn't included in my model?

Thanks

Regards,

Marco

Please see this post for an explanation of how to model a trough system with no fossil backup.

If you make the power cycle capacity very large compared to the thermal output capacity of the solar field, you should be able to ignore the power block start-up time and other parameters.

Best regards,
Paul.