The EU funded H2020 SOLARSCO2OL project aims to demonstrate a 2 MW supercritical CO2 (sCO2) cycle with heat provided by molten salts in a relevant industrial operational environment at the premises of an existing solar complex in Spain, composed of a 50 MW Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plant and a 6.1 MW dual-axis tracking PV plant. The new pilot plant will consist of a purposely designed molten-salt storage system including a molten salt electric heater, a storage tank, and the salt-to-sCO2 primary heater connected to the sCO2 cycle. In specific relation to the turbomachinery, the project aims to demonstrate the reliability and the technical performance of all key components present in a simple Brayton sCO2 cycle, including the balance of plant and control systems. Ultimately, the overarching goal of the project is to serve as a stepping-stone towards hybrid sCO2 based CSP and PV plants able to provide cost-efficient, flexible, modular, scalable, and dispatchable solar power. Besides the specific demonstration objectives, and related component development and verification, the project aims to investigate the techno-economic performance of advanced hybrid CSP-PV layouts combining electric heaters and sCO2 cycles at higher temperatures, as well as the social and environmental acceptability of the proposed solutions. The project started in October 2020 and will span for a period of 4 years, with three clear phases: design optimization (up to months 18-24); manufacturing, prototype tests, detailed engineering, procurement, and installation (up to month 36); and operational experience, analysis and conclusive recommendations during the last year. The anticipated budget for the project is 15.5 M, and it has received a grant of 10M from the European Commission. The SOLARSCO2OL consortium is formed by 15 partners from industry and academia with complementary expertise in the fields of CSP and turbomachinery. In this paper, an overview of the project objectives, deliverables, and time plan is presented together with a condensed first-year summary including preliminary results from the conceptualization and design phases for the demonstration plant and its components.
