On May 21, 2022, Shouhang Hi-Tech Dunhuang 100MW solar tower plant generated 2.12 GWh at the DNI of 9.46 kWh/㎡, created a new high. It is the first 100MW concentrated solar power (CSP) plant put into operation in China’s first batch of CSP demonstration projects, with 11 hours of thermal storage.
The plant was connected to the grid for the first time at the end of 2018. Shouhang Hi-tech made continuously improvements on the performance during the period from 2019 to 2021, and realized the linearly rising of annual growth rate of power generation. The power generation in 2020 has increased by 58% compared with that in 2019. At the end of 2020, through the comparative analysis of the annual operation and maintenance, the efficiency of the mirror field and plant was improved greatly. The power generation in 2021 was 46% higher than that in 2020.
As of the beginning of 2022, the operation effect and power generation continued to maintain an upward trend. The power generation in January and February was 3.081 GWh, a year-on-year increase of 133.4% from 2021. In March and April, the plant shut down for one month because of there’re more dusty days and the routine maintenance of the grid. After the plant was restarted on April 13, the solar-electricity conversion efficiency was further improved. The power generation reached about 15.02 GWh at the total DNI was 100.44 kWh/㎡.
Since entering May, the total power generation from May 1st to 4th was 7.3851GWh with the total DNI was 41.62 kWh/㎡, and the daily average power generation reached more than 1.8 GWh. On May 21, the daily power generation exceeded 2.12 GWh at a total DNI of 9.46 kWh/㎡.
It’s expected that the daily and total power generation will be continuously increased with the gradual improvement of the weather and the increase of the steam turbine load value.
