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Abstract

In this thesis a thermo-economic assessment of a stand alone solar dish MGT power plant is presented. The study aims to develop a fundamental understanding of the impact of the main cycle parameters on plant performances and costs and to evaluate the possibility to incorporate hybridisation and thermal storage, considering technical limitations and economic aspects.

Objective have been achieved developing a flexible and modular tool for design and off-design performance evaluation of micro-turbine based solar power plants. This can then be adopted for different layouts and operational strategies. The model was validated against experimental data demonstrating the applicability and accuracy of the model for thermo-economic optimisation purposes. To guarantee modularity and flexibility an object-oriented programming approach, using the software C++, is adopted. Each component is represented using a class made of functions that perform a one-dimensional physical design for both design point and off-design performance in addition to a cost function.

Results in output from the above-mentioned tool were used to train machine learning algorithms, which were used to perform plant's optimisations considering dissimilar layouts, locations and operational strategies. A multi objective genetic algorithm was adopted as optimisation tool. The objective of the optimisation was to minimise the levelised cost of energy of the plant while maxmising the annual power output. Both environmental impact and plant dispachability were considered. As a final outcome of the optimisation, for each considered layout and operational strategy, a candidate point was selected and analysed. Parametric study on possible technological improvements of plants' components was also performed. The proposed optimum plant configurations are shown to be advantageous in term of levelised cost of energy, more dispatchable and with a reduced environmental impact..

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	T Technology > TL Motor vehicles. Aeronautics. Astronautics
Departments:	Doctoral Theses School of Science & Technology > School of Science & Technology Doctoral Theses School of Science & Technology > Engineering

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