Design and simulation of a parabolic trough concentrated solar power plant: Sudan case

Concentrated solar power technologies are applied in many countries worldwide, becoming one of the innovative and widespread electricity generation methods. They can effectively help solve the energy issues in developing countries and reduce the environmental issues caused by non-renewable energy sources. The main objective of this study is to investigate the potential of these technologies in Sudan by designing and analyzing a parabolic trough-based concentrated solar power plant. In addition, it aims to determine the economic profit of these plants, which will help policymakers decide to adopt and implement them. In this study, data from 17 cities in Sudan were analyzed to determine the proposed plant's location. Based on the analysis of this data, the city of Wadi-Halfa in northern Sudan was chosen for the proposed plant. Therminol-VP1 thermal oil was chosen as the HTF that will be heated in the solar field, and Hitec Solar Salt was selected as the heat storage medium. An 82 MW power block operating with a regenerative reheat steam Rankine cycle was used to generate the power. The simulation of the power block was performed using Ebsilon Professional software. The design of the solar field and thermal storage system was determined using SAM software. Finally, four different design scenarios were studied and compared with each other. The design parameters were optimized based on the results of the economic analysis. This study's results showed that the plant's most economically feasible design is when it has a solar multiple of 4 and 14 hours of heat storage. The plant was found to be able to produce about 540.42 TWh of electricity annually with a capacity factor of %75.9. The plant's total capacity costs were found to be 766,949,824 $. The economic analysis proved that the plant is economically profitable since the Levelized cost of energy is 9.52 ¢/kWh. In summary, the results found that this kind of plant is technically applicable and economically feasible in the climatic conditions of Sudan.