Molten Chloride Salt TES for Next-Generation CSP Plants: R&D Progress in Corrosion Control and Process Upscaling

Kurzfassung

Next-generation concentrating solar power (CSP) plants with operating temperatures higher than 700°C need advanced high-temperature thermal energy storage (TES) systems and power cycles (e.g., supercritical CO2 Brayton power cycle) for a higher energy conversion efficiency (>50%) and lower levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) [1]. The next-generation molten salt TES technology based on chlorides is such a promising high-temperature TES technology under R&D by many research groups [2], since compared to other TES technologies like solid particles, its replacement to the molten nitrate TES in the state-of-the-art CSP plants can keep the current CSP system design and the key components (e.g., molten salt pump, salt receiver, etc.) as much as possible [1].