SBIR-STTR Award

In some areas of the USA and Europe, the installed capacity of renewable generation has reached a level at which wholesale energy prices can drop below zero due to overproduction relative to baseload capacity. The value of energy exported to the grid for behind-the-meter (BTM) systems is dropping, with policies in many states now promoting self-consumption of produced energy rather than net-metering. As a result, systems including energy storage are being increasingly valued. While storage is an intrinsic component of today?s concentrating solar power (CSP), traditional utility scale plants require billions of dollars in capital expense; take many years to site, permit, and construct; use vast tracts of open land; and have to compete against low-cost baseload power. Norwich Technologies (NT) will develop a distributed-scale CSP (D-CSP) system that integrates a novel low cost storage subsystem with proven solar field and power block technology. The system will operate at a maximum temperature of 350oC and be primarily targeted at BTM applications, using long term storage to enable high percentage rates of self-consumption for commercial and industrial (C&I), municipal, university, school, and hospital (MUSH) customers. By targeting higher value energy streams and higher storage ratios than traditional CSP, NT will enable widespread deployment of CSP, thus enhancing grid reliability, resiliency and security for customers across the sun belt. In contrast to traditional CSP, our system can be permitted, designed, and built in under 18 months; will have intermediate capital requirements (i.e., few $1M?s to $10M?s); have modest land requirements similar to commercial scale PV; and can target retail versus wholesale power rates because of BTM operation. During the Phase I program we will de-risk the storage system through design and computational modelling followed by a laboratory-scale test and demonstration. We will perform detailed cost analysis for the storage system and all components of the solar field and power block. By improving the fidelity of our solar power plant models we will determine the optimum solar field configurations for a variety of potential customers? needs and environments. We will develop partnerships for a field-scale demonstration to be designed and deployed during the anticipated Phase II program.

Solar power is now in many areas the most affordable form of electrical generation, but solar intermittency can negatively affect reliability at high penetrations. Batteries are one means of compensating for short-duration (i.e., seconds to minutes) solar intermittency, but bulk thermal storage is an increasingly competitive alternative option for long-term compensation (hours). Norwich Technologies is developing adistributed-scale Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) system that integrates extremely low-cost thermal storage with proven solar field and power block technology. This system is primarily targeted at Behind the Meter (BTM) systems utilizing long term storage for commercial and industrial, municipal, university, school, and hospital customers. Phase I Work. During our successful Phase I program, we de-risked the storage system through design and computational modelling followed by laboratory-scale tests and demonstrations. We performed detailed cost analysis for the storage system and all components of the solar field and power block. By improving the fidelity of our solar power plant models, we explored the optimum solar field configurations for a variety of potential customers’ needs and environments. Phase II Work. During the proposed Phase II award, Norwich Technologies (NT) proposes to build upon the successful initial development carried out under Phase I of this program to further develop, de-risk, and carry out field testing of a low cost, long duration thermal energy storage system. NT will then integrate this energy storage system into a distributed scale, fully dispatchable CSP system design that in many parts of the USA will produce reliable, affordable, 24/7 electricity at <$0.10/kWh, ranging from 100s of kW to 10s of MW scale. NT will carry out a field demonstration of this thermal storage system integrated with CSP in conjunction with the University of Louisiana-Lafayette at their test facility. The successful demonstration of NT’s distributed scale CSP-thermal storage system in this Phase II Project will lead to commercialization of this technology for BTM markets. Applications and Benefits. The very low-cost working fluid and thermal storage proposed here is a key enabler to low-LCOE CSP and provides benefits at both the customer and grid level by providing 24/7 energy, improving grid reliability, and increasing resilience of critical infrastructure in the face of natural disasters. Customers, such as hospitals, are essential businesses that can greatly benefit from on-site energy. Through the targeting of high energy value customers, this new system will allow rapid deployment of BTM CSP to gain further economies of scale and cost reductions within the next five years.9