Solar Hybrid Receiver with Dynamic Concentrator High-Efficiency Solar Power Architecture with Direct Water Cycle and Stirling Bottoming

Preprint version - based on simulation-based engineering analysis, not peer-reviewed. The Solar Hybrid Receiver with Dynamic Concentrator (SHRDC) is a TRL-3 TES-free concentrated solar power concept using direct steam generation, dry cooling, and a low-grade recovery subsystem coupled to the exhaust side of the power block. The reference plant is modelled as a 280 MWe net no-TES configuration with no molten salts, no synthetic oils, no battery storage, and no external thermal-energy storage tanks in the baseline. SHRDC uses a direct purified water/steam Rankine loop as the main power-conversion path. The low-grade recovery subsystem is represented only at aggregate plant level and contributes a modelled 34.5 MWe gross recovery output in the reference case; its detailed internal architecture remains outside the scope of the public manuscript. The corrected baseline estimates 23.5% net solar-to-electric efficiency, approximately 580 million USD concept CAPEX, 15 million USD/year O&M, and a base-case electricity-only LCOE of approximately 9.43 ¢/kWh, with a scenario range of 7.2-10.9 ¢/kWh. The concept is not presented as a 24/7 baseload or storage-backed dispatchable power plant. Instead, SHRDC is designed for daytime and flexible industrial energy users, including behind-the-meter applications, hydrogen production, desalination, process heat, and remote industrial loads that can align demand with solar-time generation. Its main architectural value proposition is the removal of molten-salt storage infrastructure, synthetic-oil loops, salt tracing, salt pumps, and salt-to-steam exchanger trains, reducing storage-related system complexity while retaining a direct solar-thermal-electric conversion pathway. All performance, cost, water-use, reliability, and operating values remain desk-based estimates. No physical prototype, field test, regulatory certification, or bankability assessment has yet been completed. Further validation requires detailed IAPWS/SAM-style modelling, transient DSG simulation, optical field validation, prototype testing, supplier data, and independent third-party engineering review. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/405481307