As of September 30, 2023, actual power generation of SUPCON SOLAR Delingha 50MW Molten Salt Tower CSP Plant has reached 102GWh in the first three quarters of 2023.

Starting from the beginning of this year, the sub-systems of solar block, TESS and SGS, and turbine and generator system of the plant continues to see stable operation, of which 91 days have seen a daily performance over 100%.

The monthly power generation in 2022 and the first three quarters of 2023 is shown in Figure 1. We can see that the cumulative power generation in the first and third quarters of 2023 is higher than those of the same period in 2022, especially in the third quarter which is 15.5% higher than that of the same period in 2022. The power generation in the second quarter was lower than that of the same period in 2022, mainly due to a 16.74% DNI drop out of a more windy and rainy weather. In addition, there was a mandatory plant shutdown for 7 days from May 29 to June 4 due to the special inspection on molten salt pipeline and steam pipeline requested by the relevant authorities, affecting the power generation of 2.11GWh.

If we take out the factor of the 7-day inspection, the power generation in the first three quarters could have reached 104GWh. Meanwhile, the plant operation continues to improve, supported by a fact that though the year-on-year DNI dropped by 3.73% in the first three quarters, its cumulative power generation only decreased by 1.84%.  

Figure 1: Monthly Power Generation Data of the Plant for 2022 & 2023

In the next, winter season is coming. For tower CSP plant of which the annual efficiency is relatively even, its generation in winter normally can exceed the annual monthly average because the weather in winter is generally clear and less rainy. As a reference, our generation in the fourth quarter of 2021 and 2022 were 46.68GWh and 40.39GWh respectively. It is safe to say that if there is no major change in DNI in the fourth quarter, the plant will continue to reach its designed annual output target in 2023.

We quickly completed the test run and debugging in the first half of 2019 and transferred it to operation from July after synchronization on December 30 of 2018. During its first full year operation, we saw a generation of 122 GWh. In 2022, its generation was 146.4 GWh or a 100.26% of the designed value. Till the end of September 2023, the overall accumulated actual power generation stood at 525GWh.

SUPCON SOLAR Delingha 50MW Molten Salt Tower CSP Plant Heliostat field

SUPCON SOLAR Delingha 50MW Molten Salt Tower CSP Plant is one of China's first batch of CSP pilot projects. With a 50MW capacity, 7-hour molten salt storage and 27,135 sets of 20㎡ heliostat, its designed annual output is 146GWh. By saving 46,000 tons of standard coal and reducing 121,000 tons of CO2 emission, it creates enormous economic and social benefits. The plant is designed and constructed with Cosin Solar's fully patented technologies, and over 95% equipment are domestically sourced. It also passed complete technical assessment of Fichtner, a German independent engineering consulting company with a conclusion that “The design of the plant corresponds to state-of-the-art design”.