Design of a New Power Cycle Employing Geothermal Energy and Solar-Driven Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Plant

Abstract In recent years, renewable energy such as solar energy and geothermal energy has been extensively investigated. In this article, a new power cycle employing geothermal energy and a solar-driven supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) plant has been proposed and analyzed. Various configurations of solar-driven supercritical CO₂ recompression Brayton cycles with geothermal preheating have been proposed and analyzed. A series of parametric studies, including variations in maximum cycle temperature, geothermal source temperature, and other key parameters such as intermediate pressure and split ratio, have been conducted to evaluate their impact on the overall cycle efficiency and net power output. The pressure ratio has been fixed at 2.5. It has been concluded that the mass-matched case, which will be described later in the text, has the best performance compared with other cases with the same amount of geothermal energy input.