Study on feasibility of using concentrated solar thermal based electricity generation in Sri Lanka : case of Hambantota

Abstract

Based on the maturity, a suitable CSP technology was decided to start the concentrated solar thermal based electricity generation in Sri Lanka. Maturity was decided according to the quantities and capacities of plants around the world. 65 % of CSP projects in the world are used parabolic trough technology. 79 % of the total operational CSP plants are parabolic trough systems. 85 % of total operational capacity comes from parabolic trough. Therefore, parabolic trough technology is the most matured technology in CSP technologies. SAM 2017.1.17 version was used to analyze the parabolic trough CSP plant in Hambantota area. The analysis was performed for two cases. Case 1 was the analysis done for Hambantota solar data downloaded from SWERA library and the Case 2 was the actual solar data of Hambantota solar park obtained from SLSEA. 600 nos of combinations of PPA price, number of field subsections, solar multiple, and full load of TES (hr) were subjected to a parametric analysis. The best plant configuration at which the plant is feasible and the plant has minimum LCOE, is when the PPA price ($/ kWh), number of field subsections, solar multiple, and full load TES (hr) are respectively 0.5, 2, 6 and 16 for the Case 1. They are respectively 0.7, 2, 8, and 20 for the case with actual solar data. The estimated net capital cost per watt for the parameter set which gives the lowest LCOE of the Case 1 was /W. For the Case 2, it was /W. The annual energy generation of the Case 1 is 50 % higher than that of the Case 2.