Abstract
Hybrid power plants that couple conventional with renewable energy are promising alternatives to electricity generation with low greenhouse gas emissions. Such plants aim to improve the operational stability of renewable power plants, while at the same time reducing the fuel consumption of conventional fossil fuel power plants. Here, we propose and evaluate the thermodynamic and economic viability of a hybrid plant under different operating conditions, applying exergy and economic analyses. The hybrid plant combines a coal plant with a solar-tower field. The plant is also compared with a conventional coal-fired plant of similar capacity. The results show that the proposed hybrid plant can emit 4.6% less pollutants due to the addition of solar energy. Fuel consumption can also be decreased by the same amount. The exergy efficiency of the hybrid power plant is found to be 35.8%, 1.6 percentage points higher than the efficiency of the conventional coal plant, and the total capital investment needed to build and operate a plant is 8050.32 $/kW. This cost is higher than the necessary capital investment of 5979.69 $/kW to build and operate a coal-fired power plant, and it is mainly due to the higher purchased equipment cost. Finally, the levelized cost of electricity of the hybrid plant is found to be 0.19 $/kWh (using both solar and coal resources) and 0.12 $/kWh when the plant is fueled only with coal.
Highlights
Over the past ten years, power generation from coal has been responsible for more than 40% of the global energy production [1]
This article studied the simulation of a hybrid power plant that coupled coal with concentrating solar energy and presented its evaluation under different conditions
Exergy and economic analyses of the hybrid power plant were conducted to examine the viability of the plant from these two points of view
Summary
Over the past ten years, power generation from coal has been responsible for more than 40% of the global energy production [1]. Concerns related to climate change [3,4,5], resource depletion, as well as supply insecurity and fossil fuels’ price volatility are growing [6]. These aspects have led to the development of certain protocols and climate agreements between countries, as for example the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris. In Spain, renewable electricity production decreased during the recent economic crisis, while coal use increased This situation has been changing in the last few years; in 2016, coal-fired power generation constituted 14.5% of the electricity generation in Spain, while the respective figure for renewable energy was 41.1% [9]
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