Thermo-economic Assessment of the first Integrated Solar Combined Cycle System of Hassi R’mel

Abstract

The aim of this study is the thermo-economic assessments of an integrated solar combined cycle (ISCC) system, in terms of thermal efficiency, electricity production and levelized electricity cost (LCOE). During the day light the power plant operates as an ISCC and operates as a conventional combined cycle (CC) during the night or cloudy days. In one hand the obtained results show that at the design point the solar electricity ratio may reach about 17 % and the global thermal efficiency 63 %, leading to lower fuel consumption and carbon emission. On the other hand, the economic assessment depicts that LCOE may reach 0.0222 $/kWh, which is about 28 % higher than that of (CC) power plants. Furthermore, by introducing the environmental effect LCOE becomes equal to 0.0272 $/kWh which is higher. Therefore, the annual solar contribution relatively to this ISCC installation site will allow about 18.45 million $ of fuel saving, avoiding emission of 0.89 million ton of CO₂ over 30 years operation.