Numerical Investigation and Control The Thermal Storage System in A Single-Tank for CSP Plants

Abstract

To avoid the intermittency behavior in solar energy system due to unforeseen weather conditions and to improve the energy availability, thermal energy storage (TES) system remains inevitable. Thus, a single tank packed bed thermocline based TES system can provide an effective solution.  This paper reports a study on the thermal energy storage in a thermocline. A comprehensive one-dimensional non-thermal equilibrium model is considered and is solved using method of characteristics for the energy storage. In this present study, the governing equations are approached from a new numerical method perspective. The governing equations are reduced to dimensionless forms, which allow a universal application of the solution. The dimensionless equations, which are as a system of hyperbolic type, are solved numerically by the method of characteristics. After a theoretical study, we established the water and solar salt outlet temperature by a simulation of the thermal performance of CSP system under climatic conditions of Errachidia region (Southern Morocco) using Matlab and TRNSYS software in typical days of year.