Review on Performance Analysis of the Power Block in Concentrated Solar Power Plants

Concentrated solar power (CSP) is a promising option to generate flexible and green power for the power grid. Power block is important to enhance energy efficiency and flexibility of CSP plants, which mostly operate in off-design conditions and dynamic processes due to the intermittency of solar energy. Many studies have been conducted on the performance analyses of power block in CSP plants, and they are reviewed herein. Steady-state models of power block are summarized, and influences of power block on the entire CSP system are discussed. Through improving the dual-pressure-level steam generator and declining back-pressure of condensers, power block efficiency increases by 0.5% and 1.78%, respectively. Then, the dynamic characteristics of CSP plants, particularly on the power block, are reviewed for start-up/shut-down processes, sudden factor change situations, and control system design. Recent advances on the thermodynamic and economic optimizations of the power block in CSP plants that aim to achieve fast start-up/shut-down and continuous economic stable power are discussed. Moreover, the performance of global in-service CSP plants is discussed. Turbine efficiency increases with operation temperature (349–395 °C), ranging from 30.6% to 38.7%. Several research gaps are proposed by investigating previous studies, and suggestions on future studies are provided accordingly.