Economic Comparison of Parabolic trough Collector and Linear Fresnel Reflectors Power Plants

Abstract

Nowadays, generating clean electricity is gaining increasing interest, many renewable technologies have been developed to produce green energy. Indeed, concentrating solar power (CSP) plants are one of the promising viable options to substitute fossil power plants especially for countries with abundant solar resource. In the present paper, an economic comparison of the kWh produced by both technologies Linear Fresnel reflectors (LFR) and parabolic trough collectors (PTC) is presented. Indeed, the comparison consists in the variation of several parameters (inlet and outlet temperatures of the field, cycle efficiency and solar multiple) using cost and hourly simulation performance models. An optimization approach is also integrated in this perspective, in order to minimize the cost of kWh. This study is carried out as part of the project for the development of a simultaneous production of water and electricity unit by coupling a CSP to the forward osmosis desalination process of brackish water.