Levelized Cost of Heat of the CSPth Hybrid Central Tower Technology

Process heating represents about two-thirds of the energy that the industry sector consumes worldwide; this energy comes primarily from burning fossil fuels. There is a wide variety of processes for which solar technologies can supply energy. Within these technologies, the CSPth Central Tower produces heat at temperatures about 600 degrees C, making it suitable for high-temperature processes. A CSPth Central Tower can be combined with a fuel-based system to form a CSPth Hybrid Central Tower system, which results in a high-reliable energy source with low rates of CO2 emissions. In this work, the levelized cost of heat (LCOH) of the CSPth Hybrid Central Tower technology was calculated. SolarPILOT was used to design and evaluate the CSPth Central Tower; fuel consumption was calculated using a steady-state energy balance. The LCOH was evaluated considering the CO2 prices recommended by the High-Level Commission on Carbon Pricing. The analysis shows that this technology can be highly competitive and, in certain cases, shows lower LCOH than fuel-based systems. However, these cases depend on reasonable CO2 prices, low costs of capital (approximate to 5%), and efforts to reduce the capital expenditure, which can nowadays be possible for CSPth Hybrid Central Tower systems designed with large solar multiples.