A methodology to assess the market potential and identify most promising business cases for small scale CSP plants with thermal energy storage

Abstract

This study presents a methodology to quantify the market potential for a novel distributed CSP technology with thermal energy technology. The system in question relies on the Stirling engine for power production, which is fed by heat collected from a heliostat field and stored in an integrated latent heat storage unit. Selected countries in the MENA region are investigated to identify best prospective business cases for such a technology. With a global market potential above 40 GW in the whole MENA, industrial sectors such as mining and cement hold the best prospects in terms of market share. The achievable costs of generation vary depending on the DNI of the sites considered but prove to be lower compared with conventional distributed generation (diesel gensets or PV-BEES). However, several countries in the MENA, although having high DNI resource, still offer low electricity utility prices to industrial customers for distributed CSP to become competitive with on-grid electricity procurement. A scenario analysis coupled with a multi criteria selection of the optimal business case quantifies the amount of subsidies necessary to reach competitiveness.This study presents a methodology to quantify the market potential for a novel distributed CSP technology with thermal energy technology. The system in question relies on the Stirling engine for power production, which is fed by heat collected from a heliostat field and stored in an integrated latent heat storage unit. Selected countries in the MENA region are investigated to identify best prospective business cases for such a technology. With a global market potential above 40 GW in the whole MENA, industrial sectors such as mining and cement hold the best prospects in terms of market share. The achievable costs of generation vary depending on the DNI of the sites considered but prove to be lower compared with conventional distributed generation (diesel gensets or PV-BEES). However, several countries in the MENA, although having high DNI resource, still offer low electricity utility prices to industrial customers for distributed CSP to become competitive with on-grid electricity procurement. A scenario a...