Numerical investigation of medium grade sensible and latent heat storage system for small scale CSP plants

Packed bed thermocline heat storage is a promising thermal energy storage alternative to molten salt storage in concentrating solar power plants. Such technology opens the way for using worldwide available materials such as natural rocks and some industrial residues. Packed bed thermocline is highly interesting for small scale plants using medium grade heat as well as for large heat consuming industries and has a potential of increasing the local content of future solar power projects in Morocco and other neighboring countries. In this paper, two packed bed thermocline storage systems are proposed based on the sensible and latent heat storage approaches. A numerical study of both systems is carried out to assess their performance in terms of storage capacity, output stability, and charge/discharge efficiency for a potential pilot application. The target facility is an experimental 1 MWe concentrating solar power with organic Rankine cycle plant at the research platform Green Energy Park in Morocco.