Software development for design, simulation and sizing of parabolic trough solar thermal power plant (EthioSolA)

Utilization of renewable energy resources is currently a global concern due to several reasons that include environmental pollution caused by combustion of conventional fuels, availability of resources in the vicinity, and continuous increase in cost of conventional fuels. Solar energy is the major renewable energy resource that is a basis for the other ones. Since the annual average daily radiation for Ethiopia is 5.2kWh/m²/day and the minimum annual average radiation ranges from 4.5kWh/m²/day in July to a maximum of 5.55kWh/m²/day in February and March [1], [2], parabolic trough collector solar power plants, which are mature technologies among the solar thermal ones, can be feasible to be used in the country for large and small scale applications. An interactive simulation software has been developed by the authors to support designers and researchers who are willing to simulate flow dynamics and power prediction of parabolic trough solar power plants and optimisation of their components. The design of the software began from thorough understanding of the physics governing conversion of energy from solar radiation to electricity using the plant, sizing of plant components, code writing for solving the governing equations and designing an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) for easy communication with the software. Besides giving the basic function of simulation and optimisation, the software benefits its users in being freely accessible and open source. The open sourceness of the software package also motivates others in the energy field to develop their own packages either by modifying the code of this software or by creating a new one. Furthermore, it is a unique method of mapping and identifying conducive environmental localities that are suitable for implementation of solar energy. Over and above this, this project is a unique means of sharing global responsibility of mitigating effect of climate change. The software has been validated by simulating existing power plants for which all the data are available.