Thermoeconomic Analysis of a Steam Rankine Cycle Integrated with Parabolic Trough Solar Collectors

Solar energy is a renewable source that can be used for a wide range of applications especially for power generation. In this paper, thermoeconomic analysis is performed for a steam Rankine cycle whereas solar energy is used for producing steam using parabolic trough solar collectors (PTSC). For this purpose, firstly the modeling of the solar collectors is performed. Then the mass and energy equations are solved to obtain the thermodynamic state of each point. The cost of each component is calculated using the purchase costs of the system components as a function of thermodynamic parameters. The effect of active parameters such as inlet temperature and pressure of steam turbine, solar irradiation intensity, pinch point, interest rate, and lifetime are investigated on the number of solar collectors in rows, the total aperture area, the thermal efficiency and the average cost of electricity. The results shows that the average cost of electricity decreases with increasing the inlet temperature and pressure of steam turbine. The average cost of electricity is calculated to be less than 3 cent/kWh while it is normally more than 10 cent/kWh.