Concentrating Solar Power Best Practices Study Mark Mehos,1 Hank Price,2 Robert Cable,2 David Kearney,2 2 2 2 Bruce Kelly, Gregory Kolb, and Frederick Morse 1 National Renewable Energy Laboratory 2 Solar Dynamics, LLC NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy Technical Report Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy NREL/TP-5500-75763 Operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC June 2020 This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications. Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308 Concentrating Solar Power Best Practices Study Mark Mehos,1 Hank Price,2 Robert Cable,2 David Kearney,2 2 2 2 Bruce Kelly, Gregory Kolb, and Frederick Morse 1 National Renewable Energy Laboratory 2 Solar Dynamics, LLC Suggested Citation Mehos, Mark, Hank Price, Robert Cable, David Kearney, Bruce Kelly, Gregory Kolb, and Frederick Morse. 2020. Concentrating Solar Power Best Practices Study. Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory. NREL/TP-5500-75763. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy20osti/75763.pdf. NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy Technical Report Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy NREL/TP-5500-75763 Operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC June 2020 This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications. 15013 Denver West Parkway Golden, CO 80401 Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308 303-275-3000 • www.nrel.gov NOTICE This work was authored in part by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, operated by Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308, and in part by Solar Dynamics under NREL subcontract No. NCE-8-82268-01. Funding provided by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office. The views expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE or the U.S. Government. This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications. U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reports produced after 1991 and a growing number of pre-1991 documents are available free via www.OSTI.gov. Cover Photos (left to right): Warren Getz, NREL 00033; Dennis Schroeder, NREL 46198 NREL prints on paper that contains recycled content. Foreword The concentrating solar power (CSP) industry has its roots in the LUZ parabolic trough developments in California that started in the 1980s. LUZ built nine plants that demonstrated the early commercial implementation of CSP technology, providing an important source of knowledge for future CSP system development. Over the last 15 years, the CSP industry has emerged and evolved into a global industry and supply chain. CSP plants have been built in 12 different countries, with the industry now—in 2020—approaching 100 plants in commercial operation. Many companies, laboratories, institutions, and individuals have played important roles in the development and growth of this renewable source of electricity. Much learning and experience has occurred, although significant portions of this knowledge have remained internal to specific companies due to commercial interests or, in some cases, insufficient platforms suitable for sharing valuable insights. As a result, our observation is that too many lessons have had to be relearned as new plants are designed and built by new participants. Therefore, the purpose of this report is to gather valuable knowledge from the experiences of industry and stakeholders. This report is titled CSP Best Practices, but it can be more appropriately viewed as a mix of problematic issues that have been identified, along with potential solutions or approaches to address those issues. In some cases, but not all, the solutions are in fact best practices. But in other cases, they may be more accurately viewed as practices valuable for consideration or as innovative but unproven ideas to solve problems or improve operations. The report relies heavily on the feedback we have received from the CSP stakeholders interviewed in this process. We have chosen to lean on the side of sharing detailed information as well as synthesizing it into brief best practice recommendations. Many problems have been project-specific but reflect broader significance. Furthermore, a few reviewers pointed out that some of the issues chosen for inclusion are not CSP-specific, but rather are general issues common to any complex construction project of this nature. This is true, but we include them in sections of the report because such issues are vitally important to successfully develop CSP projects. Thus, to provide a broader understanding for future CSP stakeholders, our overall approach has been to address observations from stakeholders on common issues and experience related to developing and executing CSP projects. Our aim is that the reader will find the information presented here to be useful and thought- provoking, with ample examples that can serve to develop stronger CSP projects with lower project costs and improved long-term plant operation. iii This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory at www.nrel.gov/publications. Acknowledgments This report was developed based on funding from the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, Managing and Operating Contractor for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy. This project received additional funding contributions by the Climate Investment Funds through the World Bank as well as the IEA SolarPACES Program, supporting both travel for the project and dissemination prior to and following publication of this report. We also acknowledge the Electric Power Research Institute for their in-kind contribution over the course of the project. We would like to acknowledge all the contributions coming from the concentrating solar power industry and other participants that have made this report possible: Aalborg, Abengoa, Acciona, ACWA, Advisian/Worley Parsons, Atlantica Yield, BrightSource, Cerro Dominador, ChemTreat, CMI, Cobra, CSP Services, DEWA, DLR, Fichtner, Flowserve, FTI, Huiyin Group, La Africana, Lointek, Masen, Mott MacDonald, Nevada Solar One, NRG, OCA Global, Parsons Corporation, Sargent & Lundy, SBP, Sener, SolarReserve, SolEngCo, SUNCAN, Terra-Gen, TSK, Virtual Mechanics, and Vast Solar. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the external review team for each of the sections, including: Section 2 – Project Organization: Georg Brakmann, Miroslav Dolejsi, Michael Eckhart, Bill Gould, Paul Nava, Nicholas Potrovitza, Fred Redell Section 3 – Project Execution: Georg Brakmann, Miroslav Dolejsi, Michael Eckhart, Bill Gould, Paul Nava, Nicholas Potrovitza, Fred Redell Section 4 – Operation & Maintenance: Antonio Gavilan, Eckhard Lüpfert, Nicholas Potrovitza Section 5 – Parabolic Trough: Georg Brakmann, Miroslav Dolejsi, Martin Eickhoff, Antonio Gavilan, Anne Schlierbach, Eduardo Zarza Section 6 – Central Receiver: Raul Navio, Jim Pacheco iv This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory at www.nrel.gov/publications. List of Acronyms API American Petroleum Institute ASME American Society of Mechanical Engineers BOO build, own, and operate CAPEX capital expenditure COD commercial operation date CSP concentrating solar power Cv flow coefficient DCS distributed control system DLR German Aerospace Center DNI direct normal insolation DOE U.S. Department of Energy EPC engineering, procurement, and construction FAT final acceptance test or factory acceptance test FEED front-end engineering design FIT feed-in tariff FSC field supervisory controller HAZOP hazard and operability HCE heat-collection element HTF heat-transfer fluid I&C instrumentation and control IEA International Energy Agency IA Initial acceptance IE independent engineer ISCC integrated solar combined cycle KPI key performance indicator LE lender’s engineer LCOE levelized cost of electricity LD liquidated damage LNTP limited notice to proceed LOC local controller LOPA layers of protection analysis LOTO lock out tag out LTA lender's technical advisor LTSA long-term service agreement MCC motor control center MW megawatt MWe megawatt-electric MWt megawatt-thermal NOx nitrogen oxides NREL National Renewable Energy Laboratory NTP notice to proceed O&M operations and maintenance OE owner's engineer OPEX operating expenditure OS out-of-service v This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory at www.nrel.gov/publications. OTS owner's technical specifications PLC programmable logic controller PM preventative maintenance PPA power purchase agreement PV photovoltaic QA quality assurance QC quality control RFP request for proposal RTD resistance temperature device SEGS Solar Electric Generating System SETO Solar Energy Technologies Office SGS steam generation system SME subject-matter expert SolarPACES Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems TES thermal energy storage TMY typical meteorological year UPS uninterruptable power supply VFD variable-frequency drive VOC volatile organic compound vi This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory at www.nrel.gov/publications. Executive Summary The primary objective of this Concentrating Solar Power Best Practices Study is to publish best practices and lessons learned from the engineering, construction,