Performance of Solar-Thermal Organic Rankine Cycle (STORC) Power Plant with a Parabolic Trough System

Abstract

There is a high demand for alternative modes of energy provision to reduce the potential for negative environmental impact. Addressing the problem of sustainable energy supply is one of the major engineering challenges of the twenty-first century (Katayama and Tamaura 2005). One potential means of overcoming this challenge lies in the development of renewable energy technology through a dedicated research effort. The effort includes, for example, exploration of biomass utilisation, waste heat energy recovery, wind energy and solar energy, among others. Among these alternative sources, renewable energy sources provide economical, safe and renewable energy technologies and create opportunities for the sustainability of power generation (Resch et al. 2014). Moreover, renewable energy technologies have only recently achieved widespread adoption. Similar to conventional energy technologies, many of them are still to be tested and proven. One way of hastening the adoption of these technologies is to reduce the amount of field testing and field optimisation by using numerical models to optimise the technologies. Modelling of the specific renewable energy technology, such as the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology, reduces