Effect of Two Different Heat Transfer Fluids on the Performance of Solar Tower CSP by Comparing Recompression Supercritical CO₂ and Rankine Power Cycles, China

China intends to develop its renewable energy sector in order to cut down on its pollution levels. Concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies are expected to play a key role in this agenda. This study evaluated the technical and economic performance of a 100 MW solar tower CSP in Tibet, China, under different heat transfer fluids (HTF), i.e., Salt (60% NaNO₃ 40% KNO₃) or HTF A, and Salt (46.5% LiF 11.5% NaF 42% KF) or HTF B under two different power cycles, namely supercritical CO₂ and Rankine. Results from the study suggest that the Rankine power cycle with HTF A and B recorded capacity factors (CF) of 39% and 40.3%, respectively. The sCO₂ power cycle also recorded CFs of 41% and 39.4% for HTF A and HTF B, respectively. A total of 359 GWh of energy was generated by the sCO₂ system with HTF B, whereas the sCO₂ system with HTF A generated a total of 345 GWh in the first year. The Rankine system with HTF A generated a total of 341 GWh, while the system with B as its HTF produced a total of 353 GWh of electricity in year one. Electricity to grid mainly occurred between 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. throughout the year. According to the results, the highest levelized cost of energy (LCOE) (real) of 0.1668 USD/kWh was recorded under the Rankine cycle with HTF A. The lowest LCOE (real) of 0.1586 USD/kWh was obtained under the sCO₂ cycle with HTF B. In general, all scenarios were economically viable at the study area; however, the sCO₂ proved to be more economically feasible according to the simulated results.