Solar-Aided Coal Fired Power Generation - A review

Abstract

Purpose of this review is to check possibility of upgrading existing coal based thermal power plants with Coal-Solar hybrid power generation. Almost 2/3rd of power generation in India is based on Coal which is main source of environment hazardous gases like carbon dioxide (CO2), Sulfur dioxide (SO2) and Nitric Oxide (NO). As per “Central Electricity Authority, India” total CO2 emission in year 2016-17 was 888.3 million tones, which is a matter of worry. Study presented in this paper cover literature review of Solar-aided thermal power plants all over the world. Considering emission of green house gasses, Solar based thermal power plant can be a good option but it has several drawbacks, like availability of Sun energy at different interval of day and season, initial investment, land acquirement and battery arrangement for storage. On the other hand coal thermal power plant has issue of available coal stock in earth crust, emission of environmental hazardous gasses. In this paper literature on integration of Solar thermal energy with existing coal based thermal Power plants is reviewed and results presented are discussed. One of the major concerns with existing coal thermal power plants is emission of environment hazardous gasses. One of the possible solutions to this is to move towards renewable energy sources but also it's not practical, economical and efficient to replace all the existing coal based power plants with renewable energy sources like Solar or Wind. It has been found that the Solar-coal hybrid power generation can stand as one of the best solutions in near future Study presented in this paper cover literature review of Solar-aided thermal power plants all over the world. Considering emission of green house gasses, Solar based thermal power plant can be a good option but it has several drawbacks, like availability of Sun energy at different interval of day and season, initial investment, land acquirement and battery arrangement for storage. On the other hand coal thermal power plant has issue of available coal stock in earth crust, emission of environmental hazardous gasses. In this paper literature on integration of Solar thermal energy with existing coal based thermal Power plants is reviewed and results presented are discussed. One of the major concerns with existing coal thermal power plants is emission of environment hazardous gasses. One of the possible solutions to this is to move towards renewable energy sources but also it's not practical, economical and efficient to replace all the existing coal based power plants with renewable energy sources like Solar or Wind. It has been found that the Solar-coal hybrid power generation can stand as one of the best solutions in near future.