Analysis of cooling methods of parabolic trough Concentrating Solar Thermal power plant

Cooling of parabolic trough Concentrating Solar Thermal power (CSTP) plants requires a large volume of water. The availability of water required for cooling is becoming more limited especially in the arid areas where parabolic trough CSTP plants are located. This has prompted the use of dry (air) cooling to condense the steam turbine exhaust vapor. However the capital costs of a dry cooled plant are approximately 5% higher than a wet cooled plant. The cost of electricity from a dry cooled plant is over 10% higher than that from a wet cooled plant. The energy losses that occur in dry cooled make it less efficient compared to wet cooling. The net energy production of a dry cooled plant is low and hence achieves lower capacity values. This paper presents compares dry and wet cooled parabolic trough CSTP plants with two-tank indirect storage system in terms of energy production, solar to electricity energy conversion efficiency, water consumption, land usage, capacity factor and levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) for CSTP deployment in Lowdar, Kenya.