Techno-economic assessment of solar power tower and solar parabolic dish system in India

Pradipta Mandal; K. S. Reddy

Authors

Pradipta Mandal Heat Transfer and Thermal Power Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras Chennai, 600036, India
K. S. Reddy Heat Transfer and Thermal Power Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras Chennai, 600036, India

Keywords:

Solar power tower, Parabolic dish system, Energy and economic analyses, Viability, Sensitivity analysis

Abstract

This article presents a techno-economic analysis and comparison between the solar power tower (SPT) and the solar parabolic dish system (PDS) for Indian city of Jodhpur. Both of these technologies are integrated with the Rankine cycle-based power block. The simulation is run for the power block in Cycle-Tempo software. The thermal efficiency is obtained as 32%. With ηth=32% as the input, the technical and economic analyses are carried out. Four economic parameters Net Present Value (NPC), Benefit-to-cost (B/C ratio), Discounted Payback Period (DPP) and Levelized Electricity Cost (LEC) are used in the study. The NPV for SPT and PDS are 335.89 and 252.66 Cr. Rs. Respectively. The B/C ratio obtained for SPT and PDS are 3.59 and 2.63 respectively. The DPP obtained for SPT and PDS are 5.58 and 6.77 year respectively. The LEC achieved for SPT and PDS are1.89 and 2.30 Rs. / kWh respectively. Finally, the sensitivity analysis considering various important parameters such as direct normal irradiance (DNI), discounted interest rate and per square meter reflector cost is performed.