Analysis of key factors in low-temperature solar-thermal-electric power generation with organic Rankine cycle

A low-temperature solar-thermal-electric power generation system, which uses HCFC123 as the working fluid of the organic Rankine cycle (ORC) and compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) as the solar collectors, was analyzed. In order to enhance the stability and continuance of the power output by ORC and decrease the temperature difference between the heat transferring fluid and the organic fluid, a novel design for the system was proposed. The heat transfer and thermodynamic processes were discussed and the mathematical models were built. Based on the authors' local weather condition, the simulation results indicated that the evaporation temperature of organic fluid, times of tilt adjustments and the number of evaporator stages played an important role in the annual output of the system. The optimized system can generate electric about 87.1 kWhm-2 per year when the evaporation temperature was 119C with a two-stage evaporator and 6 times annual tilt adjustments. © All Rights Reserved.