Techno-economic evaluation of linear Fresnel reflector based concentrated solar power plant for Karbi Anglong district of Assam

Abstract

Solar energy is the most promising option for energy generation among the available renewable energy sources. The available direct normal solar radiation can be utilized for energy generation by using concentrated solar power (CSP) systems. In this research work, an attempt was made to compare various solar radiation data sources that provide the monthly average daily direct normal irradiation, global horizontal irradiation, diffuse irradiation, and other meteorological parameters in order to visualize the feasibility of CSP system in the selected location. Five different data sources were considered: Meteonorm 7.2, NASA-SSE, NREL-SEC, PVGIS and SolarGIS. Karbi Anglong district of Assam was selected as it contains the district-wise most number of un-electrified villages. A 50 MW linear Fresnel reflector based CSP system was considered due to its low capital cost over parabolic trough collector and central tower receiver technologies. Two different software PVSyst and System Advisor Model were used to compare the performance of the above mentioned data sources for the selected location. The monthly average daily collected data were converted into hourly data with the help of PVSyst and then into Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) files through the SAM software. TMY files were then used to calculate the annual electricity production in SAM and finally levelized cost of electricity was estimated. It was observed that total electricity generation varies from 79.4 GWh for SolarGIS to 105.4 GWh for NREL-SEC and correspondingly LCOE varies from Rs. 12.37/kWh for SolarGIS to Rs. 9.39/kWh for NREL-SEC. The highest annual capacity factor was obtained as 24.10%.