Techno-economic feasibility of a new combined CSP-geothermal power plant

Abstract

Due to vast geographical coincidence of geothermal resources with abundant sunshine areas from a side, and the possibility of integrating geothermal plants with solar power systems on the other side, hybridization of these two technologies is an attractive solution to enhance the dispatchability of thermal power plants. Hence, the design and techno-economic performances of a new combined solar-geothermal power plant have been presented. This configuration generates electricity at two levels; at a topping parabolic trough solar power plant, and at a bottoming binary geothermal plant. On the other side, this topping plant is equipped with energy storage and fuel backup systems at the same time, to maximize the dispatch capacity. The obtained results show that the dispatch capacity of this configuration has been raised up to 12.4 %, while its levelized cost of electricity has been decreased by more than 33 % at the nominal conditions compared to the conventional solar power plant. This paper presents a new solution to raise the dispatch capacity and power generation of hybrid thermal power plants and decrease their economic risks, either by hybridization or by waste heat recovery. © 2022 IEEE.