INTEGRATION OF SOLAR PARABOLIC TROUGH INTO COAL-FIRED POWER PLANT A CASE STUDY

PERUMIN 09 Peru By
Kelfin Hardiman; Rory Hynes; Babak Seyedan; Mark Berkley Hatch Ltd. 1235 North Service Road West Oakville, Ontario, Canada, L6M 2W2 Tel: 905-469-3402 Ext. 3198 Fax: 905-469-3404 Email: rhynes@hatch.com Hatch Associates Pty Ltd. 15 Help Street, Chatswood Sydney, NSW, Australia, 2670 Tel: +61 2 8668 2380 Fax: +61 2 8668 2300 Email: khardiman@hatch.com.au

ABSTRACT More stringent environmental regulations, technology improvements and increasingly available governments funding and incentives are among the key factors that will favor renewable-based power generation in the future. In the case of Australia, apart from biomass and wind, solar energy has specifically been identified as a promising source with a large fraction of the land area experiences prolonged solar exposure and high irradiation intensity, particularly in the Northern part of the mainland towards the equator. Even so, it is widely acknowledged that the practical installation of stand-alone solar power plants is hampered by the high solar collectors cost and the transient nature of power output due to time-variation in solar intensity. While solar is expected to play a greater role as Australias future energy supply, it is evident that in the near future coal will remain as the dominant source due to its low cost and abundant availability, as well as high reliability of coal power plants. Accordingly, the concept of retrofitting a solar parabolic trough a commercially-proven solar technology into a coal-fired plant seems to offer an attractive technique, at which cleaner electricity may be produced at a reasonable cost and at a high availability.

A case study was carried out using a computerized model to evaluate an integrated solar/coal facility consisting of a 120 MWe coal boiler unit connected to a steam turbine at which a portion of coal supply may be replaced by steam produced in the solar plant with a capacity equivalent of delivering 30 MWe in the steam turbine. The addition of solar component brings about reduction in coal usage and waste emission, thereby resulting in savings on fuel cost, operating and maintenance expenses and tax payable associated with carbon emission. A number of sensitivity analysis will be presented in the full paper, in particular the effect of different carbon tax ($/t-CO2) will be evaluated. For the purpose of economic evaluation, a base case of equivalent-capacity (120MWe) power plant fuelled by coal only (no solar contribution) was also developed. Based on the modeling results, main technical features of the two cases will be assessed. Further analysis of the two systems will be done by comparing various parameters, such as t-CO2/MWh and $/MWh.

Simplified Configuration Diagram of Coal-fired Boiler Integrated With Solar System

Parabolic Trough Solar Plant

120 MW
Coal Boiler HPT LPT

Coal
Mine Power Demand