National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd, Golden, Colorado 80401-3393, United States.
Environ Sci Technol. 2011 Mar 15;45(6):2457-64. doi: 10.1021/es1033266. Epub 2011 Feb 23.
Climate change and water scarcity are important issues for today's power sector. To inform capacity expansion decisions, hybrid life cycle assessment is used to evaluate a reference design of a parabolic trough concentrating solar power (CSP) facility located in Daggett, CA, along four sustainability metrics: life cycle (LC) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water consumption, cumulative energy demand (CED), and energy payback time (EPBT). This wet-cooled, 103 MW plant utilizes mined nitrates salts in its two-tank, thermal energy storage (TES) system. Design alternatives of dry-cooling, a thermocline TES, and synthetically derived nitrate salt are evaluated. During its LC, the reference CSP plant is estimated to emit 26 g of CO(2eq) per kWh, consume 4.7 L/kWh of water, and demand 0.40 MJ(eq)/kWh of energy, resulting in an EPBT of approximately 1 year. The dry-cooled alternative is estimated to reduce LC water consumption by 77% but increase LC GHG emissions and CED by 8%. Synthetic nitrate salts may increase LC GHG emissions by 52% compared to mined. Switching from two-tank to thermocline TES configuration reduces LC GHG emissions, most significantly for plants using synthetically derived nitrate salts. CSP can significantly reduce GHG emissions compared to fossil-fueled generation; however, dry-cooling may be required in many locations to minimize water consumption.
气候变化和水资源短缺是当今电力部门的重要问题。为了为容量扩张决策提供信息，采用混合生命周期评估来评估位于加利福尼亚州达格特的抛物槽式聚光太阳能（CSP）设施的参考设计，评估了四个可持续性指标：生命周期（LC）温室气体（GHG）排放、水消耗、累计能源需求（CED）和能源回报时间（EPBT）。这个湿冷的 103MW 工厂在其双罐热能储存（TES）系统中使用开采的硝酸盐盐。评估了干冷、温跃层 TES 和合成衍生硝酸盐盐的设计替代方案。在其 LC 期间，参考 CSP 工厂估计每千瓦时排放 26 克 CO(2eq)，消耗 4.7 升/千瓦时的水，消耗 0.40 MJ(eq)/千瓦时的能源，导致 EPBT 约为 1 年。干冷替代方案估计将 LC 水消耗减少 77%，但将 LC GHG 排放和 CED 增加 8%。与开采的相比，合成硝酸盐盐可能会增加 LC GHG 排放 52%。从双罐到温跃层 TES 配置的转换减少了 LC GHG 排放，对于使用合成衍生硝酸盐盐的工厂来说，这一点尤为显著。与化石燃料发电相比，CSP 可以显著减少温室气体排放；然而，在许多地方可能需要干冷来最大程度地减少水消耗。
