Solar thermoelectric system with biomass back-up

Abstract

With the objective of having a solar thermoelectric system, running for 24 h a day along the different seasons of the year it is necessary to dimension the adequate storage and back-up systems. The choice of the back-up source of energy depends on how sustainable the power plant should be. In this study, the choice was the use of biomass in order to have a 100% renewable power plant. The selected site was the Alentejo region (Portugal). The local Direct Normal Irradiation (DNI) data was used to simulate with the System Advisor Model program (SAM) considering a solar system with north field and molten salt storage. The system needs no back-up during three months in a year. The use of biomass pellets is a viable alternative because it makes the power plant 100% renewable and dispatchable without loss of energy due to over-dimension of the expensive solar field and molten storage system.