Techno-economic assessment and environmental impact of concentrating solar power plants in Iran

Abstract

This study aims to assess the technical, economic, and environmental aspects of parabolic trough and solar tower power plants under the climatic conditions of south-central regions of Iran with an average direct normal irradiation of about 6 kWh/m2/day. The effects of power plant capacity, cooling system, solar multiple, and hours of thermal energy storage on the techno-economic performance of the power plants are examined. In addition, the environmental metrics including reduction of CO2 emissions, fossil fuel saving, and energy payback time are evaluated. Four power plant capacities of 20, 50, 100, and 200 MWe along with two cooling options, including dry and wet are investigated. Besides, the solar multiple and capacity of thermal energy storage are varied from 1.0 to 4.0 with a step of 0.1, and from 0 to 18 h with a step of 1 h, respectively. The ground weather data from the meteorological organization of Iran are used as input data in the System Advisor Model software. Based on the results, the optimal configurations for the studied power plants concerning the techno-economic parameters are determined. It is revealed that the dry-cooled solar tower power plant with a capacity of 100 MWe, 14 h storage system, and solar multiple of 3.0 is the most efficient configuration under the studied climatic conditions. For this concentrating solar power plant, the levelized cost of electricity and solar-to-electricity efficiency are 11.3 ¢/kWhe and 14.7%, respectively. Furthermore, the energy payback time is about 15 months, annual CO2 emissions reduction is 399 kilotons, and annual fossil fuel saving is 190 million cubic meters of natural gas.