SOLAR POWER OUTPUT CORRELATION WITH UTILITY DEMAND IN SOUTHERN NEVADA

Various solar electric system performance codes are used to predict th e power generated by different solar power systems in the Southern Nev ada area during 1990 by using the National Solar Radiation Data Base ( NSRDB) for Las Vegas. The system types evaluated along with the predic tion codes (shown in parenthesis) are as follows: a central receiver o r a power tower system with various amounts of storage (SOLERGY), a Lu z-type SEGS parabolic trough system without fossil fuel backup or stor age (LUZERGY), a dish-Stirling system (DISH2, a conversion of direct b eam radiation with constant collector/engine efficiency was used for t his), and various arrangements of nonconcentrating photovoltaic device s (PVFORM). Comparisons of these results are made with the daily varia tions of load requirements of an electrical utility operating in the s ame geographical area. These comparisons are made for summer and winte r periods. It is shown that several of the power generation schemes ha ve summer peak outputs that occur at times very near to, but not coinc ident with, the peak utility load requirements. The power tower with a relatively small amount of thermal storage was the only scheme able t o provide full power output at the times of summer peak demands, Winte r peaks in this region occur during the night. Two comparisons are mad e that illuminate the summer load sewing capability of solar generatio n in addition to simply showing time-variations of outputs. Included i n these comparisons are the determination of the difference in time be tween the peak power output and the peak demand as well as the normali zed fraction of the peak power generated at the peak demand times.