•The techno-economic feasibility analysis of the solar power plant is evaluated.•The optimal combinations are obtained in the current and cost reduction scenarios.•The impacts of energy storage cost ...reductions on competitiveness are analyzed.
Renewable-energy power generation can mitigate global climate change and contribute to achieving the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutralization. A solar power plant with flexible output and low power-generation cost is the desired goal; however, it is unclear which combination modes have superior economy and reliability in current economic scenarios or cost reduction scenarios. In this study, a solar power plant with many combinations, comprising a photovoltaic (PV) plant, inverter, concentrated solar power (CSP, including solar field, thermal storage system (TES), and power cycle), electric heater, and battery, is proposed. The levelized cost of energy and loss of power supply probability are selected as the evaluation criteria, and the capacities of each component are set as decision variables. In the current and cost-reduction scenarios, the feasibility analysis of the system is evaluated, and the optimal combinations and capacities of the components are acquired via multi-objective optimization. The obtained results are as follows. In the current scenarios, a system comprising TES has better economy and reliability than that comprising a battery, and the integration of CSP into the PV system can most economically improve the reliability. With the cost reduction of the energy storage, there is a strong competitive relationship between the battery and TES when the battery cost is reduced to approximately 160 USD/kWh. A solar power plant with integrated CSP is an effective method of enhancing generation reliability, although the battery cost is reduced to 60 USD/kWh. In cost-reduction scenarios, the advantages of the battery gradually become apparent, e.g., a PV plant with a battery has greater competitiveness than that with a TES. The integration of batteries into solar power plants is a promising future endeavor, while integrating CSP in a power plant would still be advantageous in current scenarios.
While renewable energy sources enjoy high public support, projects are rarely implemented without opposition. The term energy landscapes indicates that landscape change is amongst the most frequent ...issues. This study researched lay people’s perceptions of landscapes changed by solar power plants. The first objective was to discover how likely solar power plants are to be noticed in the landscape. The second objective was to determine the associations observers make when spotting a solar power plant. The data was collected by participatory photography and focus groups. Participants visited six solar power plants. The results show that they are highly noticeable and contentious objects. Participants who understood the landscape as a rural idyll disapproved of solar power plants, while for those who perceived the landscape through a utilitarian narrative, the (mis)fit of the solar power plant depended on its relation to the surrounding landscape structure. Landscape degradation was contrasted with low-carbon energy and developmental benefits. The results provide evidence on the interdependence of visual and non-visual factors and suggest improvements in planning and design of solar power plants. While the method gives a rich in-depth insight into landscape perception, it is also context dependent and needs further research to obtain more generalisable results.
•A novel in situ method shows photovoltaics are highly noticeable landscape elements.•Laypeople mostly contrast energy benefits with landscape degradation.•Mimicking landscape structure improves power plant’s integration with the landscape.•Issues exposed by laypeople correspond well with impacts proposed by experts.
The current investigation provides information about solar updraft tower power plants, SUTPPs (also called solar chimney power plants, SCPPs), which form a unique method of solar-powered electricity ...production through a ducted wind turbine driven by induced airflow as a result of solar heating. The investigation is conducted using numerical modeling via the system-level simulation tool Aladdin (developed and released freely by the Institute for Future Intelligence, IFI) for solar energy systems, wind energy systems, or the built environment. The Aladdin energy simulator is first evaluated here by comparison with published experimental and numerical results corresponding to the historical 50 kW prototype SUTPP that was successfully tested in Manzanares (Spain) between 1982 and 1989. This prototype has a height of about 195 m for the chimney (the updraft tower) and a radius of about 122 m for the solar heat absorber (the solar air collector or the greenhouse). Next, various climate and performance characteristics are investigated and contrasted for nine different locations around the world with a similar latitude of 24°, which is within the sunbelt, assuming that the same Manzanares SUTPP prototype geometry is employed in these locations. These nine locations are Muscat (Oman), Al Jawf (Libya), Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Karachi (Pakistan), Ahmedabad (India), Havana (Cuba), Culiacán (Mexico), Dhaka (Bangladesh), and Baise (China). The energy generation intensity (EGI) for the Manzanares-type solar updraft tower power plant in these nine examined locations was between 0.93 kWh/msup.2 per year (in Baise) and 2.28 kWh/msup.2 per year (in Muscat). Also, Muscat had the smallest seasonality index (maximum-to-minimum monthly electric output) of 1.90, while Baise had the largest seasonality index of 4.48. It was found that the main limitation of the overall SUTPP energy conversion efficiency is the chimney efficiency (the process of accelerating the air after entering the chimney). This study concludes that solar updraft towers (SUTs) cannot compete with existing mature and modular renewable energy alternatives, particularly photovoltaic (PV) panels, if the aimed use is commercial utility-scale electricity generation. Instead, SUTs may become attractive and achievable if viewed as hybrid-use projects by serving primarily as a large-scale greenhouse area for agricultural applications while secondarily allowing energy harvesting by generating clean (emissions-free) electricity from the incoming solar radiation heat.
The estimation of daily solar radiation is needed in many studies related to solar power plant placements. To optimize photovoltaic (PV) systems, their placement must be as efficient as possible in ...terms of the prevailing meteorological conditions. There are situations where radiation data are not available, as in the case of desert areas, suitable for the operation of PV systems. In this work, daily global solar radiation has been estimated in desert areas using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), where the inputs used are daily minimum and maximum temperatures and extraterrestrial radiation. The ANN model is validated with data from deserts in Chile, Israel, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Australia. The results show that the average Relative Root-Mean-Square Deviation (RRMSD) value is 13%, the average Relative Mean Bias Difference (RMBE) value is less than 4% and the average correlation coefficient (r) value is about 0.8.
•Daily global solar radiation has been estimated in desert areas.•Extreme daily temperatures were used as input of ANN for solar radiation estimation.•The best solar radiation estimation was in Chile with an RMSD of about 8%.•Radiation estimations in world's deserts presented an average RMSD value of 13%.
Renewable energy sources are the most necessitated natural energy to reduce fossil fuels globally. Fossil fuel is the most valuable and limited resource on the planet, but on the other hand, ...renewable energy creates less pollution. Solar energy is the most effective renewable resource for daily use. Solar power plants are necessary for domestic and daily use. Remote sensing and geographic information technology (GIS) were used for this study to delineate the possible site selection of solar power plants in Kolkata and the surrounding area in West Bengal, India. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and the multi-criteria decision-making process (MCDA) were used for each weight calculation and ArcGIS v10.8 was applied for weighted overlay analysis (WOA) for delineation of the result. The site suitability map was developed using a pairwise comparison matrix and the weights were calculated for each criterion. The suitability map was divided into five categories, from not suitable to very highly suitable. A total of 474.21 km2 (10.69%) of the area was classified as very highly suitable whereas 249.54 km2 (5.62%) area was classified as not suitable because of the water area and east Kolkata wetland. A total of 1438.15 km2 (32.43%) of the area was classified as highly suitable for a solar power plant. The Kolkata megacity and water body locations were identified as moderate to not suitable sites. Very high and high-potential sites were identified 2 to 5 km from the central business district (CBD) location, which is Dharmotala. Renewable energy source is needed in the megacity of Kolkata. If solar power plants are contracted then the demand for fossil fuel will be reduced one day, and that will help the environment as well as the society in terms of sustainable development. This study result is helpful for administrators, urban planners, developers, and other stakeholders for the implementation and development of a new solar power plant in the study area.
Ionic liquids (ILs) represent promising working fluids to be used in thermal energy storage (TES) technologies thanks to their peculiar properties, such as low volatility, high chemical stability, ...and high heat capacity. Here, we studied the thermal stability of the IL N-butyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium tris(pentafluoroethyl)trifluorophosphate (BmPyrrFAP), a potential working fluid for TES applications. The IL was heated at 200 °C for up to 168 h either in the absence or in contact with steel, copper, and brass plates to simulate the conditions used in TES plants. High-resolution magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy was found to be useful for the identification of the degradation products of both the cation and the anion, thanks to the acquisition of sup.1H, sup.13C, sup.31P, and sup.19F-based experiments. In addition, elemental analysis was performed on the thermally degraded samples by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Our analysis shows a significant degradation of the FAP anion upon heating for more than 4 h, even in the absence of the metal/alloy plates; on the other hand, the BmPyrr cation displays a remarkable stability also when heated in contact with steel and brass.
Using supercritical COsub.2 as a heat transfer fluid in microchannel receivers is a promising alternative for tower concentrating solar power plants. In this paper, the heat transfer and flow ...characteristics of supercritical COsub.2 in microchannels at high temperature are investigated by numerical simulations. The effects of microchannel structure, mass flow rate, heat flux, pressure, inlet temperature and radiation are analyzed and discussed. The results show that higher mass flow rate obtains poorer heat transfer performance with larger flow resistance of supercritical COsub.2 in microchannels at high temperature. The fluid and wall temperatures, average heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop all increase nearly linearly with the increases in heat flux and inlet temperature in the high-temperature region. Moreover, high pressure contributes to great hydraulic performance with approximate thermal performance. The effect of radiation on thermal performance is more pronounced than that on hydraulic performance. Furthermore, the optimized structures of inlet and outlet headers, as well as those of the multichannel in the microchannels, are proposed to obtain good temperature uniformity in the microchannels with relatively low pressure drop. The results given in the current study can be conducive to the design and application of microchannel receivers with supercritical COsub.2 as a heat transfer fluid in the third generation of concentrating solar power plants.
In the process of creating a prediction model using artificial intelligence by utilizing a deep neural network, it is of utmost significance to know the amount of insolation that has an absolute ...effect on the quantity of power generation of a solar cell. To predict the power generation quantity of a solar power plant, a deep neural network requires previously accumulated power generation data of a power plant. However, if there is no equipment to measure solar radiation in the internal facilities of the power plant and if there is no record of the existence of solar radiation in the past data, it is inevitable to obtain the solar radiation information of the nearest point in an effort to accurately predict the quantity of power generation. The site conditions of the power plant are affected by the geographical topography which acts as a stumbling block while anticipating favorable weather conditions. In this paper, we introduce a method to solve these problems and predict the quantity of power generation by modeling the power generation characteristics of a power plant using a neural network. he average of the error between the actual quantity and the predicted quantity for the same period was 1.99, that represents the predictive model is efficient to be used in real-time.
As a vast country with average solar radiation of 4.5 kW-hours per square meter, Iran enjoys a very high potentiality for initiating and utilizing solar systems and, in particular, electricity ...generation from solar power plants. Optimal site selection for solar power plants requires making multi-criteria decisions. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is one of the most comprehensive multi-criteria decision-making tools. The present study was conducted to select a regionally optimal site regarding climatic conditions using AHP and the Expert Choice software. Certain criteria and sub-criteria such as the amount of radiation, the number of sunny days, the average temperature, the amount of humidity, the amount of rainfall, the level of visibility, and the cloudiness factor were regarded. To select an optimal site using AHP and Expert Choice software, after specifying the hierarchic levels, including the target, criteria, sub-criteria, and alternatives (intended sites), pairwise comparison was made between the sets to weigh them up. The provincial centers of Iran were considered in the study and Zahedan has been selected as the best location for constructing a solar power plant. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis on the major criteria was performed and the impacts of parameter weight on the alternatives were assessed.
A source-grid-load cross-area coordinated optimal dispatch model based on IGDT and a wind-photovoltaic-photothermal system is suggested to handle the problem of renewable energy consumption under ...large-scale wind power and photovoltaic grid connections. Firstly, the peak flexibility of a wind-photovoltaic-photothermal co-generation system is investigated to improve the utilization rate of wind and solar resources. To increase the model’s efficiency and accuracy, the alternating direction multiplier method (ADMM) is used. Finally, arithmetic examples are utilized to examine and contrast how the system dispatch cost changed under risk-averse and risk-seeking strategies. It also examines how the installed ratio of concentrated solar power plants affects the overall cost of the system. The findings demonstrate that the suggested model may achieve a coordinated optimization of the source, grid and load while lowering system operation costs.
