In this study, the techno-economic performance of supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO₂) power cycles in concentrating solar power plants based on particle technology is assessed. A simplified levelized cost of electricity calculation was used to investigate the effect of cycle parameters, compare cycle layouts and allow for comparing optimized sCO₂ power blocks with steam technology. Results showed that simple cycle layouts with fewer components and lower cycle parameters lead to the lowest energy cost. This is caused by (a) fewer components, (b) lower primary heat exchanger, turbine as well as recuperator cost if the turbine inlet temperatures is limited and (c) a lower cost of the thermal storage system if the sCO₂ temperature increase in the primary heat exchanger is large. Nevertheless, even the most economical sCO₂ variants generate electricity at a 10 % higher cost than a steam reference system and a significantly lower efficiency. These results held true when changes were made to cost models. Finally, it was shown that the cost of main sCO₂ equipment would have to be reduced by 30 %–50 % to reach cost parity with steam systems. These findings will need to be confirmed with more detailed off-design simulations and optimized solar field components.

在这项研究中，评估了基于粒子技术的聚光太阳能发电厂中超临界二氧化碳 (sCO ₂ ) 动力循环的技术经济性能。使用简化的平准化电力计算成本来研究循环参数的影响、比较循环布局并允许将优化的 sCO ₂动力块与蒸汽技术进行比较。结果表明，具有较少组件和较低循环参数的简单循环布局可实现最低的能源成本。这是由于 (a) 组件较少，(b) 如果涡轮机入口温度有限，则初级热交换器、涡轮机和同流器成本较低，以及 (c) 如果 sCO ₂初级换热器温升较大。尽管如此，即使是最经济的 sCO ₂变体，其发电成本也比蒸汽参考系统高 10%，而且效率明显较低。当对成本模型进行更改时，这些结果仍然成立。最后，结果表明，主要 sCO ₂设备的成本必须降低 30%–50%，才能与蒸汽系统达到成本平价。这些发现需要通过更详细的非设计模拟和优化的太阳能场组件来证实。