Thermo-economic analysis of air bottoming cycle hybridization using heliostat field collector: A comparative analysis

Abstract

Nowadays, climate change has become a vital issue prompting investigations for increasing the share of renewable energy employment in power generation industry. Solar energy is arguably the most favorable solution for a greener power generation technology. With the current level of maturity, solar energy contribution is limited due to intermittency and storage issues. A possible solution to the aforementioned difficulties is power plant hybridization. In this paper, thermo-economic optimization of a hybrid air bottoming cycle (ABC) power plant is accomplished with the objective of minimizing the levelized cost of electricity. The aforementioned hybrid ABC optimization results are compared with a hybrid conventional combined cycle power plant to identify the most cost effective combined cycle configuration for a 50 MWe hybrid power plant. Finally, an already existing ABC power plant hybridization is investigated utilizing payback period, life cycle saving, and levelized cost of electricity approaches.