A User's Manual for DELSOL3 - prod.sandia.gov - Sandia National ...

The fourth major enhancement in DELSOL3 is the update of most of the de-
fault values in the code. As part of this update, new algorithms for calculating
tower cost were included, a transition region was added between the tower and
receiver, and the fixed cost algorithm was adjusted to reflect such things as struc-
tures, improvements, and miscellaneous equipment. Receiver, thermal storage,
heat exchanger, and turbine-generator costs were adjusted based on the Saguaro
molten salt cavity design (Reference 8). Heliostat, land, and wiring default cost
values were modified. Also, the default heliostat was redefined to have about 100
square meters of reflective area, and the pointing errors of this heliostat were ad-
justed. Certain component efficiencies were modified, and the plant factor was
changed from 1.0 to 0.9 to reflect the fact that some maintenance outages will be
required in any realistic power plant. Lastly, default values used for economic as-
sumptions were adjusted, such as the fixed charge rate and the rates of escalation
and inflation. It is important that the user of this code verify that any default
values which are used in DELSOL3 calculations are valid, since different economic
scenarios could result in vastly different predicted energy cost values and since the
relationship between component costs and efficiencies directly affects the optimum
system which is chosen by DELSOL3.
Finally, several other minor enhancements were made in DELSOL3, including
an optional weather factor algorithm based on latitude of the plant, an additional
heliostat density optimization algorithm, a mixed mode smart aiming algorithm,
optional interactive plotting of fluxes from a single zone or from the entire he-
liostat field, and addition of another heat exchanger for use between a receiver
fluid and a different storage fluid. Also, the operating logic was adjusted so that
receiver operation only occurred when net power was positive, and so that the
turbine-generator only operated from storage instead of directly from the receiver.
I.B. Conventions in This Manual
In this description of DELSOL3, variables which are capitalized refer to
namelist input variables. In some instances, different variable names will be used
when describing the theory behind certain algorithms, in which case the variable
names will not be capitalized, but these may be related to input variables by fol-
lowing the theory variable by the capitalized input variable in parenthesis. For
instance, fa (FSP) relates the input variable FSP to the theory variable fa.