Abstract
This paper evaluates and discusses ways to use five energy resources more efficiently for generating electric power. An analysis of five different 10 MW powerplants was made: a photovoltaic system, a concentrated solar power system, wind turbines, a natural gas combined cycle and an integrated solar combined cycle. Also, each power plant’s operating principle, thermodynamic analysis, economic analysis, and simulation evaluation were made using the System Advisor Model (SAM), Engineering Equation Solver (EES), and the Thermoflow Power Plant Simulation program. From the analysis, the power plant capacity factor, grid availability, levelized cost of electricity, and annual energy production are compared and analyzed to determine a suitable power plant for a given location.
Highlights
In the United States, the main source of electricity generation is from coal, natural gas, and petroleum
The results show that integrating the Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) system with Natural Gas Combined Cycle (NGCC) made a large impact on the reduction in capital cost, operation and maintenance cost (O&M) cost and the Levelized cost of electricity (LCOE)
Renewable energy was a good replacement for fossil fuel energy
Summary
In the United States, the main source of electricity generation is from coal, natural gas, and petroleum. Natural gas is the most dominant energy resource in the USA and nearly. 40 percent of electricity production is from natural gas. At the end of the year 2019, 1582 billion kWh of electricity generation was from natural gas. Natural gas produces 0.2 kg CO2/kwh, whereas coal produces 0.36 kg of CO2/kwh [2]. According to U.S Energy Information Administration the coal share in the USA will reduce to 22 percent in 2020. The reason is partly because of the cost of the clean air requirement required to reduce the plant emissions and because other power plants like natural gas, wind and solar are getting cheaper
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