If you will need dinamyc symulation of the system with possibility of detailed analysis and performance optimisation (energetical and economical) I would suggest to use TRNSYS. Time consuming, but very powerfull.

This might help or point you to other resources:

Demonstration Development Project: Solar Thermocline Storage Systems: Preliminary Design Study

http://www.epri.com/abstracts/Pages/ProductAbstract.aspx?ProductId=000000000001019581

As with other generation sources, you approach this via a so-called levelized cost of electricity (LCE) perspective. What LCE does is approach a power plant from a lifetime cost perspective, including initial capital cost, operating and maintenance costs and decommissioning costs. Of course there is always an argument about what to leave out (e.g. Carbon capture & storage with coal). The following study looks unfortunately other renewable sources but not solar thermal:

http://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/en/publications/veroeffentlichungen-pdf-dateien-en/studien-und-konzeptpapiere/study-levelized-cost-of-electricity-renewable-energies.pdf

The US Energy Information Administration report is more comprehensive:

http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/electricity_generation.cfm

1) F-Chart method, simple with a lot of constraints, the oldest method + software, www.fchart.com,

2) T-SOL Software www.valentin.de - you can download free-of -charge the demo version, ,

3) POLYSUN Software www.velasolaris.com, more flexible /more complicated,

Also there is a plethora of free of charge softwares as STescos tool (for Solar thermal escos applications) see www.stescos.org, SOLARMASTER, SOLO2000, RETScreen...

Hello, Ryan, Robert Vassiliki, Thanks very much for your answer. Your suggestions are really very useful for my research.

If you will need dinamyc symulation of the system with possibility of detailed analysis and performance optimisation (energetical and economical) I would suggest to use TRNSYS. Time consuming, but very powerfull.

Dear Gang

Easiest is to download Der-Cam or EnergyPLAN - or as the previous response  suggested TrnSys.

regards

Gerro

Dear Gang

Furthermore solar simulation softwares that have been mentioned, there is another one, available through http://kalkener.com/en/, that calculates the main components of a lower-temperature solar thermal power plant, its annual energy production and key performance and profitable indicators (Net Present Value -NPV- and Internal Rate of Return -IRR-), once the user has introduced the hot water energy demmanded (in a daily, weekly and monthly basis),  the location of the installation (through latitude and longitude) and the rest of variables (Supplied water average temperature, shadows, etc.).

Nowadays this software is available in spanish only bUt in the short term it will be available in english and chinese.

Regards,

Jorge

Gang,

RETScreen is my election to this type of problems. It uses F-Chart method and allows to model systems with and without storage. It´s free of charge and can be downloaded at www.retscreen.net (it comes with many case studies to facilitate your understanding of your own model).

Hope it helps!

Luis

Dear friends.

We are proud to inform you that our solar thermal water heating calculating online software, available through http://kalkener.com/en/, is now available in English and it has been included into the following specialized websites (herein you will find attached their links):

• BUILD-UP: The European portal for energy efficiency in buildings

and

• The International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA) IBPSA-USA

If you are interested in test it, please don´t hesitate to contact me through [email protected] and i will provide you a free trial period.

Regards!

http://www.buildup.eu/es/node/48077

http://www.buildingenergysoftwaretools.com/software/kalkener-solar-thermal-water-heating-systems-online-simulation-software

http://kalkener.com/en/