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Many novel molten salts and their based nanofluids have been proposed, and their thermophysical properties have been extensively studied. However, their implications to performance and economic of concentrated solar power (CSP) systems are not well understood. This study has compared the performance of CSP generation systems by applying nitrate, carbonate, chloride and their based nanofluids. Based on the selected site of the study, Delingha City, Qinghai Province of China, different heat transfer fluids (HTFs) were applied to both parabolic trough collectors (PTC) systems and solar power tower (SPT) systems upon on their maximum operating temperatures. The solar multiple (SM) and thermal energy storage full-load hours of solar salt PTC and SPT systems were determined as the benchmarks, and then the results in each CSP system were compared to the benchmarks at annual, monthly and daily time scales, respectively. The results show that by comparing against the solar salt PTC systems with other HTFs, the nitrate nanofluid PTC system has the best performance, owing to an increase of 21.68% in its annual electricity generation (AEG) and an improvement of 6.0% in capacity factor (CF); among the five SPT systems, on the other hand, the performance of carbonate nanofluid SPT system is the best, and its AEG and CF are improved by 24.47% and 13.15% respectively while comparing with the solar salt SPT system. This work lends a fresh perspective to design and evaluate new CSP systems applying advanced molten salts and their based nanofluids. • Performance comparisons between CSP systems are made at multiple time scales. • Different heat transfer and storage fluids are applied to compare the performance of CSP systems. • The nitrate nanofluid PTC system shows an enhancement of AEG by 21.68% compared with a solar salt PTC system. • The carbonate nanofluid SPT system shows an enhancement of AEG by 24.47% compared with a solar salt SPT system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While all eyes have been focused on China's dramatic recasting of the global solar PV industry, and the trade disputes engendered with the US and EU, there is another solar frontier now emerging, involving grid-connected concentrating solar power (CSP) plants. China is committed to developing capacity of 3 GW by 2015 (more than doubling cumulative world capacity) and 10 GW by 2020, which would make it by far the world's CSP leader, with consequent dramatic impact on cost reductions, driving the diffusion of CSP around the world as key challenger and alternative to nuclear and fossil power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]