Reduction of CO₂ emission for solar power backup by direct integration of oxy-combustion supercritical CO₂ power cycle with concentrated solar power

Recent climate initiatives had initiated a wave of reducing CO₂ emissions for power generation. Many countries have been striving to develop and deploy low carbon emission technologies for power generation through efficiency improvement and use of renewable energy. For the regions that gain sufficient amount of solar to make solar power attractive overall, the challenge of intermittency still poses an issue for the electricity grid. The complementary role of natural gas power for the incoming renewables will be reinforced in the near future, but emission of CO₂ needs to be avoided through means such as carbon capture and storage. A novel solution of integrating the s-CO₂ oxy-combustion system with the concentrated solar power (CSP) is devised. The suggested concept will provide direction to satisfy the growing electricity demand, yet with environmental sustainability. The evaluation of this system in several regions possible for CSP installation shows reduction of fuel consumption by 17–38% compared to conventionally separated systems.