Thermo-economic analysis of conventional coal fired and non-conventional solar power plants.

摘要

Today the world is facing serious problems like rising fuel prices, limited resources, and pollution. The major portion of our energy demand is provided by fossil fuels, but as it has limited resources and causes pollution, world is thinking of an alternative source. Solar energy is one of the prominent types of renewable energy sources. There are different technologies available to convert solar energy to electricity or for some other purpose. Solar energy is very expensive as compared to conventional energy. The present study analyzes three different type of solar power technologies; parabolic through system, solar power tower, and photovoltaic system in software Solar Advisor Model 2010.4.12. The simulation was performed for two locations to understand the effect of location on output. The analysis results was then compared with the same capacity coal fired power plant. In the analysis we found out that, the solar power tower technology is more efficient and has less cost of electricity than parabolic through and photovoltaic system. The location of the solar power plants should be selected considering the annual solar radiation and availability. Although solar power is expensive than conventional coal fired power plant, solar power plant is clean source of energy and practically minimum impact on environment.