A simple equation for estimating hourly water consumption in CSP plants

Abstract

Abstract— Unlike conventional thermal power plants which are generally erected in the coastal regions near water bodies, seas and oceans, where water resource availability is not a critical factor, concentrating solar power (CSP) plants are usually installed in high sunny zones which generally characterized by semi-arid and arid climates, where water resources are hard to find and/or to employ. On the other side, the hourly simulations of water consumption in CSP plants are very complex and require many calculations, data analysis and time consuming. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to develop a simple equation to estimate the hourly water consumption of a solar tower plant based on its generated power, and the existing power plant Gemasolar has been chosen to establish the methodology. The obtained results of the statistical analysis show that the cubic model based on the generated power, can be used as a simple and general model to predict hourly water consumption in a large scale solar tower power plant.