Performance mapping of steam turbines for solar thermal and solar integrated combined cycle power plants

This paper presents the performance mapping of steam turbines for concentrating solar thermal (CST) applications integrated into natural gas based combined cycle units (popularly known as ISCC). The majority of the applications are in the subcritical operating regime of steam. The data provided pertains to 3-d designed state-of-the-art steam turbines. The paper brings out the modifications needed in steam turbines to customize them for ISCC and pure CST system applications which includes cyclic operations, transients and ramping rates. The performance mapping will be useful to estimate the power generation potential from solar related Rankine cycle applications as well as provide data for component simulation of steam turbines.