energy_mass_balanceequipment_sizingcostingsolar
Screening-level CSP (solar thermal) sizing and economics from DNI, capacity factor, plant MW, and thermal storage duration, with CSP type selection.
Annual DNI at the site. CSP performance is strongly dependent on DNI.
min 1200 · max 3200 · step 50 · kWh/m2/year
Expected net annual capacity factor (fraction of nameplate). Use a value consistent with storage and DNI.
min 5 · max 85 · step 1 · %
Real or nominal discount rate consistent with your cost basis; used only for annualization via CRF.
min 0 · max 0.2 · step 0.005 · ratio
Amortization period for CAPEX annualization (CRF).
min 15 · max 45 · step 1 · years
Estimated land area
Aperture-to-land factor applied (layout + spacing)
Solar field aperture area
Estimated reflector/heliostat aperture required
Estimated number of turbine blocks
Capacity divided by a typical block size
Annual electricity production
From plant capacity and capacity factor
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LCOE
Levelized cost of electricity (simplified, no fuel)
Total CAPEX
Scaled total installed cost (solar field + power block + storage + BoP)
Thermal storage energy (electric-equivalent)
Storage duration multiplied by plant MW
CAPEX: Power block
Scaled turbine/generator island and auxiliaries
CAPEX: Solar field
Scaled aperture-area-driven cost
CAPEX: Thermal storage
Scaled cost proportional to storage MWh
CAPEX: Balance of plant
Scaled EPC, civil, grid interconnect, and misc.
Select the CSP sub-technology to apply typical efficiency, solar multiple and cost assumptions.
Nameplate net electrical capacity delivered at the grid connection.
min 1 · max 1000 · step 1 · MW
Storage hours at rated power (electric-equivalent). Higher values typically require a higher solar multiple and increase CAPEX.
min 0 · max 20 · step 1 · h
Calculator context
This calculator provides a pre-feasibility (screening) estimate for a concentrating solar power (CSP) plant using Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) as the primary solar resource driver (global applicability). It estimates required solar-field aperture and land area, CAPEX/OPEX breakdown, and LCOE for common CSP configurations.
It follows an engineering “calculation sheet” approach aligned with common public benchmark sources (e.g., IRENA, NREL ATB, and SolarPACES) while keeping user inputs limited to parameters typically known by a project developer early in development.
The model is organized into three blocks: energy (annual output), sizing (aperture/land/storage), and costing (CAPEX annualization + O&M).
Key calculations include:
Primary reference anchors: IRENA cost reports, NREL ATB CSP benchmarks, and SolarPACES technology context.
43 assumptions used in the calculations
Prevents division-by-zero and unstable behavior in edge cases.
Market range Not applicable
Converts capacity factor to annual full-load hours.
Market range 8760
Converts MW to kW for CAPEX expressed per kW.
Market range 1000
Converts kW to W for irradiance conversions.
Market range 1000
Converts MW to W for design-point aperture sizing.
Market range 1000000
Converts MWh storage to kWh for storage CAPEX per kWh.
Market range 1000
Converts land area from m2 to hectares.
Market range 10000
Screening approach to relate annual DNI to a representative high-irradiance design point used for aperture sizing.
Prevents unrealistically low design-point DNI when annual DNI is low or the heuristic mapping underestimates peaks.
Prevents unrealistically high design-point DNI from inflating thermal power density.
Imposes a mild oversizing penalty (area intensity) as capacity factor decreases, reflecting non-ideal utilization and additional solar multiple needs.
Limits oversizing penalty to a plausible upper bound for screening calculations.
Used to estimate an integer number of generation blocks for early sizing.
Represents mirror reflectivity, intercept factor, cleanliness, and receiver losses at design conditions.
Captures cosine, atmospheric attenuation, spillage, and reflectivity impacts.
Represents net cycle efficiency including parasitics at rated conditions.
Higher-temperature receiver and cycle can yield higher net efficiency.
Represents typical field-to-block oversizing without storage-driven increase.
Tower designs often use higher solar multiple for higher dispatchability and receiver constraints.
Longer storage typically requires additional solar field to charge storage while meeting generation.
Tower plants with higher storage tend to adopt higher SM for dispatchable operation.
Prevents unrealistically small solar multiples for CSP plants.
Prevents unrealistically large solar multiples in simplified screening mode.
Accounts for spacing, roads, drainage, and non-aperture areas for trough fields.
Tower heliostat fields typically require larger spacing and exclusion zones than trough.
Represents installed trough solar field cost per aperture area.
Represents installed heliostat field cost per reflective area.
Power block and related island costs for trough CSP.
Power block cost benchmark for tower plants (often higher-temperature designs).
Balance of plant / EPC / civils allowance for trough projects.
Balance of plant / EPC / civils allowance for tower projects.
Represents installed storage system cost per kWh of rated output stored (simplified).
Tower plants often pair molten-salt storage; cost expressed here as a simplified electric-equivalent metric.
Defines the reference size for CAPEX scaling exponent.
Captures modest reductions in specific CAPEX with increasing capacity.
Lower bound for screening CSP total installed cost.
Upper bound for screening CSP total installed cost.
Reference size for O&M fraction scaling.
Allows slight reduction of O&M fraction with larger plants.
Lower bound for annual fixed O&M as a fraction of CAPEX.
Upper bound for annual fixed O&M as a fraction of CAPEX.
Represents typical annual O&M cost as a fraction of installed cost at benchmark scale.
Tower plants can have higher O&M due to heliostat cleaning and receiver-related maintenance.
