Techno-economic assessment of concentrated solar and photovoltaic power plants in Brazil

Abstract

—The need for a diverse energy matrix has been promoting a favorable environment for integrating new renewable energy sources, such as Concentrated Solar Power plants (CSPs). Nonetheless, as a consequence of the incipient solar generation via CSPs in Brazil, there is a unsatisfactory number of researches that handle technical and economic assessments of CSP plants performance on this country. Given this scenario, this study proposes an assessment of the techno-economic viability of the implementation of 100 MW CSP plants in Brazil, considering the Solar Tower (ST) systems, Parabolic Trough Collectors (PTC), Linear Fresnel (LFR) Reflectors and Dish Stirling (DS) Systems, and comparing the results to a photovoltaic (PV) plant. This study utilizes project data of power plants collected from the relevant literature and applies it to the city of Bom Jesus da Lapa, Brazil. The CSP techno-economic viability is evaluated through the analysis of the annual energy generated, as well as the economic viability indicators, such as the Net Present Value, the Internal Rate of Return, the Discounted Payback and the Levelized Cost of Energy, and through a single-variable sensitivity analysis. This analysis employs the discounted cash flow model, considering the energy trade in a Regulated Contracting Environment.