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In this study, a new hybrid solar preheating intercooled gas turbine (SP-IcGT), is presented, in which a parabolic trough solar technology is used to preheat the compressed air before entering the combustor. The performance of the new hybrid gas turbine was evaluated and compared with the conventional hybrid solar preheating gas turbine (SP-GT). Several performance indicators were used in the analysis under Guangzhou (China) weather data. It is observed that the SP-IcGT is superior to the SP-GT system as it can boost the fuel-based efficiency by 19.35% versus 0.26% for the SP-GT system. In addition, the SP-IcGT has a much lower specific fuel consumption (about 7017 kJ/kWh) compared with the 10362 kJ/kWh for SP-GT. The highest fuel-based efficiency of 51.4% is obtained for the SP-IcGT with 47.4% improvement over the SP-GT, which exhibits a levelized electricity cost of 4.58 US/kWh. Meanwhile, fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced greatly by integrating solar energy with the intercooled gas turbine. The SP-IcGT is more economical than applying carbon capture to the equivalent conventional gas turbine plant combined while achieving the same reduction of CO2 emissions. Overall, the SP-IcGT is an attractive system under different climates.

This article introduces the results of a thermodynamic-economic-environmental analysis of conventional and integrated solar gas turbine trigeneration power plants based on parabolic trough collectors. The trigeneration plants are required to produce electricity with 90 MWe (from steam-turbines), 2500 kg/s of chilled water at 7 °C and 10 bars, and 34.8 kg/s of industrial process steam at 500 °C and 27.6 bars. The hourly and yearly performance of the considered plants with different gas turbine and solar field sizes have been examined and presented. In addition, a conceptual procedure to identify the optimal solar integration configuration has been developed and presented. Furthermore, the off-design behavior and regional potential of the optimally solar integration configuration have been assessed. The study reveals that the optimal configuration is the integration of 126 ha of parabolic trough collector’s solar field (46.2 ha of the total active aperture area) with the trigeneration plant of 130 MWe gas turbine size, which gives a levelled electricity cost of 5.75 USȻ/kWh with 114 k-tonne reduction of the annual CO2 emissions. Moreover, the study shows that the most proper location to utilize the solar hybrid power plants is in locations with high levels of solar irradiance and low ambient temperature.

This article presents the results of a thermodynamic-economic-environmental analysis of integrating linear Fresnel reflector (LFR) with a tri-generation system. The optimal integrated solar field size has been identified and the pertinent reduction in CO2 emissions due to solar integration is estimated. For the considered tri-generation plant (that is required to produce 110 MWe of electricity from steam turbines, 45461 m3/day of freshwater and 2300 kg/s of chilled water), the study revealed that the optimal configuration is the integration of 83.6 hectares of LFR solar field with the tri-generation plant of 130 MWe, which gives a levelized electricity cost of 6.37 USȻ/kWh with 96.40 k-tonne reduction of the annual CO2 emission. The study also revealed that the integration of LFR technology with a conventional tri-generation system (TGS) in high insolation regions has more economic feasibility compared to equivalent TGS integrated with CO2 capturing technology while achieving the same emissions reduction result.

The sinter cooling flue gas expelled from the end of an annular cooler was taken as the heat source of an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system, and R123, R245fa, R600, R601 and R601a were selected as the working fluids of the ORC system. The effects of evaporation temperature and superheat degree of working fluid, as well as the pinch point temperature difference in the evaporator on the system thermal performance, were analyzed in detail. The results show that the system net output power and exergy efficiency for different working fluids first increase and then decrease with an increase in the evaporation temperature and decrease with an increase in the superheat degree and pinch point temperature difference. The change in pinch point temperature difference has no effect on the system thermal efficiency. For a given operational condition, the system thermal efficiency and exergy efficiency of R123 are the maximum, while the system total irreversible loss of R245fa is the maximum. When the evaporation temperature is greater than 110 °C, the system net output power of R600 is the maximum. The ORC system could obtain the maximum net output power and exergy efficiency through the adjustment of evaporation temperature of working fluid.

This paper presents the results of a thermo-economic analysis of integrating linear Fresnel reflector (LFR) with cooling, heat and power tri-generation plan (LFR-GTPP). The annual performance of the LFR-GTPP with different sizes of gas turbine and solar collector’s area have been examined and presented. Thermoflex + PEACE software were used for the economic-thermodynamic-environmental assessment of different integration configurations. For the considered tri-generation plant (produce 35.6 kg/s of steam (120.55 MW), 2500 kg/s of chilled water (24440 tons), and 90 MWe of steam turbines electricity), the study revealed that LFR-GTPP with gas turbine sizes in the range 130–190 MWe have more economic feasibility for integrating LFR. Furthermore, the study revealed that the integration of LFR system with a conventional gas turbine tri-generation power plant (GTPP) in locations with high solar radiation has more economic feasibility (with 7.6% reduction in LEC) compared to equivalent GTPP integrated with CO2 capturing technology while achieving the same CO2 emissions reduction. Moreover, a conceptual procedure to determine the optimal configurations of the LFR-GTPP has been developed and presented in this article. The results indicate that the proper location to apply optimal integration configuration is in regions with high levels of solar radiation and low ambient temperature.

An innovative solar thermal power generation system using cascade steam-organic Rankine cycle (SORC) and two-stage accumulators has recently been proposed. This system offers a significantly higher heat storage capacity than conventional direct steam generation (DSG) solar power plants. The steam condensation temperature ( T 2 ) in the proposed system is a crucial parameter because it affects the SORC efficiency ( η SORC ) in normal operations and the power conversion of the bottoming organic Rankine cycle (ORC) in the unique heat discharge process. The present study develops a methodology for the design of T 2 with respect to a new indicator, that is, the equivalent heat-to-power efficiency ( η eq ). η eq is a compromise between the efficiencies in different operation modes. The effects of main steam temperature ( T 1 ), Baumann factor (a), mass of storage water ( M w ), and ORC working fluid on T 2 are investigated. Results show that η eq is a better indicator than η SORC . The optimum steam condensation temperature ( T 2 , o p t ) that corresponds to the maximum η eq ( η eq , m a x ) is generally higher than that based on the maximum η SORC . T 2 , o p t reduces as T 1 , a, and M w decrease. η eq , m a x rises with the increment of T 1 and the decrement of a and M w . Pentane is a more preferable ORC fluid than benzene and R245fa. The T 2 , o p t and η eq , m a x of pentane are, respectively, 139–190 °C and 20.93%-24.24%, provided that T 1 ranges between 250 °C and 270 °C, a varies from 0.5 to 1.5, and M w changes from 500 ton to 1500 ton.

The main objective of the present work is to investigate the possible modifications of a gas turbine trigeneration plant via integrating it with a parabolic trough collector (PTC) technology. This plant produces 45461 m3/day of freshwater and 2300 kg/s of chilled water in addition to producing 360 MWe of electricity (the steam turbines yield 110 MWe). The annual performance of an integrated solar gas turbine trigeneration power plant (ISGTPP) with different sizes of gas turbine and solar collector's area have been examined using Thermoflex software under Al-Hodeidah (Yemen) weather conditions. This study revealed that the ISGTPP results in a minor increase in levelized electricity cost (LEC) compared to the conventional trigeneration plant, nevertheless it reduces the LEC by 62–71.5% relative to the fully-solar-powered PTC power plants. Moreover, the study identified the configuration of ISGTPP with a gas turbine of 130 MWe capacity and 39.7 ha of PTC's total aperture area as the most optimal engine configuration. It reduces the annual CO2 emissions by 385 k-tonne (30.2%) in comparing with that emitted by the reference plant with a gas turbine of 250 MWe size and 100 k-tonne (10%) compared with that emitted by the corresponding conventional plant with 130 MWe size.

Solar heating (SH) and radiative cooling (RC) have been regarded as promising clean techniques for thermal energy harvesting and temperature control. However, SH and RC are only a single function of heat collection and dissipation, which means the static device of SH and RC cannot meet the dynamic heat requirement of real-world applications, especially in the daytime. Here, a strategy of dynamic integration of SH and RC is proposed for tunable thermal management. A device (i.e., SH/RC device) that includes a silica cavity, ultrapure single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) aqueous dispersion, solar reflective film, and deionized water is designed and fabricated. The outdoor experimental results show that the SH/RC device with SWCNTs media can effectively achieve heat collection with a maximum temperature of 78.9°C, while the SH/RC device with deionized water can achieve heat dissipation. Besides, the temperature modulation ability of the SH/RC device is tested to be 26.3°C and can be theoretically improved to be 60.3°C by improving the solar absorptivity (i.e., 0.9 for SH mode and 0.1 for RC mode) regulation ability of the device and improving its thermal emissivity (i.e., 0.9). Furthermore, annual analysis indicates that the cumulative time in which the SH/RC device temperature is in a comfortable region (i.e., 20°C-26°C) for humans is 60.9% and 30.3% higher than that of the device with individual SH and RC mode. In summary, this work provides alternative thinking for tunable thermal management based on the dynamic utilization of the hot sun and cold universe.

The feasibility of integrating the radiative sky cooling ability of common photovoltaic cells into the photovoltaic-thermoelectric cooler to further enhance the space cooling energy density is analyzed in this paper. Specifically, daytime cooling is obtained by the photovoltaic panel powering the thermoelectric cooler while the same photovoltaic panel provides nighttime radiative sky cooling. To achieve an optimal temporal match between the new method’s output cooling power to a cooling building’s time-varying cooling load (with 4 occupants and 24 m2 floor space), two thermoelectric cooler modes of operation are studied; The first continuously operates the thermoelectric cooler power at the time-averaged value while the second directly supplies the photovoltaic power to the thermoelectric cooler in the daytime. Furthermore, a spectral model is used to accurately estimate the radiative energy of crystalline solar cells based on their emissivity spectrum. It is found that radiative sky cooling can almost double the equivalent solar to cooling coefficient of performance over the basic photovoltaic and thermoelectric cooler system (from 0.1099 to 0.2054). The photovoltaic area only needed to be 12–17 m2, and the second operating mode can better match the supply versus cooling demand ratio while yielding a relatively consistent 10 °C difference throughout the entire day.

Solar energy is an abundant resource in many countries in the Sunbelt, especially in the middle east, countries, where recent expansion in the utilization of natural gas for electricity generation has created a significant base for introducing integrated solar‐natural gas power plants (ISGPP) as an optimal solution for electricity generation in these countries. ISGPP reduces the need for thermal energy storage in traditional concentrated solar thermal plants and results in dispatchable power on demand at lower cost than stand-alone concentrated thermal power and much cheaper than photovoltaic plants. Moreover, integrating concentrated solar power (CSP) with conventional fossil fuel based thermal power plants is quite suitable for large-scale central electric power generation plants and it can be implemented in the design of new installed plants or during retrofitting of existing plants. The main objective of the present work is to investigate the possible modifications of an existing gas turbine cogeneration plant, which has a gas turbine of 150 MWe electricity generation capacity and produces steam at a rate of 81.4 at 394 °C and 45.88 bars for an industrial process, via integrating it with concentrated solar power system. In this regard, many simulations have been carried out using Thermoflow software to explore the thermo-economic performance of the gas turbine cogeneration plant integrated with LFR concentrated solar power field. Different electricity generating capacities of the gas turbine and different areas of solar collectors have been examined. Thermoflow software simulation results have been used to identify the optimal configuration and sizing of the gas turbine and the solar field of the integrated solar gas turbine cogeneration plant (ISGCPP) required to achieve the required steam generation with the minimum cost and environmental impact. The study revealed that ISGCPP can reduce the levelized electricity cost by 76–85% relative to the fully-solar-powered LFR power plant. Moreover, the study identified the configuration of ISGCPP with a gas turbine size of 50 MWe capacity and 93 ha of LFR solar field as the optimally integrated plant. It reduces the annual CO 2 emission by 100 k Tonne (18%) in comparison with that emitted by the corresponding conventional plant with 50 MWe and 400 k tonne (43.75%) compared with that emitted by the original conventional plant with a gas turbine if 150 MWe power generation capacity. The study revealed also that integrating the LFR technology with a gas turbine cogeneration power plant in locations with high solar insolation was proved to have more economic feasibility than CO 2 capturing technology. Under Dhahran weather conditions, the LEC of about 5 USȻ/kW h is obtained using the proposed optimally configured ISGCPP compared with about 7.5 USȻ/kW h obtained by the corresponding conventional cycle integrated with carbon capture technology. In other words, the ISGCPP reduces the LEC by 50% while achieving the same reduction of CO 2 emission by an equivalent conventional plant integrated with carbon capture technology.

The present work provides an investigation of the technical and economic feasibility of integrating Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technologies with cogeneration gas turbine systems that are progressively being installed in Saudi Arabia to produce electricity and steam. In this regard, different designs of hybrid solar/fossil fuel gas turbine cogeneration systems have been proposed. The proposed designs consider the possible integration of three main Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technologies, which are namely, Solar Tower (ST) systems, Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC) system, and Linear Fresnel Reflector (LFR) systems with conventional gas turbine cogeneration systems. These three CSP technologies were assessed for possible integration with a gas turbine cogeneration system that generates steam at a constant flow rate of 81.44 kg/s at P = 45.88 (bar) and temperature of T = 394 °C throughout the year in addition to the generation of electricity. THERMOFLEX with PEACE simulation software has been used to assess the performance of the integrated solar gas turbine cogeneration with three different CSP technologies for different gas turbine sizes under Dhahran weather conditions. The three CSP technologies to be integrated individually to the gas turbine cogeneration plant are; parabolic trough collectors and linear Fresnel reflectors to the steam side and the solar tower to the gas side of the plant. Thermo-economic comparative analysis have been conducted for all possible configurations of the integrated solar gas turbine cogeneration plant to reach at the optimal levelized electricity cost (LEC). The optimization process also includes CO 2 emissions for each integrated solar gas turbine cogeneration plant (ISGCP) configuration for each the three CSP technologies in comparison with the integration of CO 2 capture technology to the conventional plant. The simulation results revealed that the optimal configuration is the integration of LFR with the steam side of a gas turbine cogeneration plant of 50 MWe, which gives a LEC of 5.1 USȻ/kW h with 119 k ton reduction of the annual CO 2 emission. Moreover, the results indicate that the proper location to apply optimal integration configuration in Saudi Arabia is at Jazan city.

Medium temperature solar thermal systems have a great prospect to be an efficient energy source for practical industrial applications. Although the evacuated flat solar collector is a potential non-concentrating collector for this application, current designs have not fully demonstrated its superiority. In this paper, a medium-scale (50.96 m2) solar thermal system based on an efficiently optimized evacuated flat plate solar collector structure is designed. A systematic four months long real-time experiment under the natural environment is conducted for medium solar thermal applications in a region with four distinct seasons. An annual performance analysis is then conducted in four different locations through a validated numerical model. Experimental results demonstrate that, when the inlet temperature is 123.0 °C, the ambient temperature is 35.7 °C and the solar irradiation is 835.2 W/m2, the thermal efficiency and exergy efficiency can reach 59.67% and 14.35%, respectively. The efficiently optimized evacuated flat plate solar collector can also achieve a stable annual average thermal efficiency at the four studied locations with values reaching up to 50%. Therefore, the superiority of this efficiently optimized evacuated flat plate solar collector design over previous ones is demonstrated.

This paper presents the results of a thermo-economic analysis of integrating solar tower (ST) with heat and power cogeneration plants that is progressively being installed to produce heat and electricity to operate absorption refrigeration systems or steam for industrial processes. The annual performance of an integrated solar-tower gas-turbine-cogeneration power plant (ISTGCPP) with different sizes of gas turbine and solar collector's area have been examined and presented. Thermoflex + PEACE software's were used to thermodynamically and economically assess different integration configurations of the ISTGCPP. The optimal integrated solar field size has been identified and the pertinent reduction in CO2 emissions due to integrating the ST system is estimated. For the considered cogeneration plant (that is required to produce 81.44 kg/s of steam at 394 °C and 45.88 bars), the study revealed that (ISTGCPP) with gas turbine of electric power generation capacity less than 50 MWe capacities have more economic feasibility for integrating solar energy. The levelized electricity cost (LEC) for the (ISTGCPP) varied between $0.067 and $0.069/kWh for gas turbine of electric power generation capacity less than 50 MWe. Moreover, the study demonstrated that (ISTGCPP) has more economic feasibility than a stand-alone ST power plant; the LEC for ISTGCPP is reduced by 50–60% relative to the stand-alone ST power plant. Moreover, a conceptual procedure to identify the optimal configuration of the ISTGCPP has been developed and presented in this paper.

The present work provides an investigation of the technical and economic feasibility of integrating Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technologies with cogeneration gas turbine systems that are progressively being installed in Saudi Arabia. Different designs of hybrid solar/fossil fuel gas turbine cogeneration systems have been proposed. These designs consider the possible integration of Solar Tower (ST), Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC), and Linear Fresnel Reflector (LFR) systems with conventional gas turbine cogeneration systems. These three CSP technologies were assessed for possible integration with a gas turbine cogeneration system that generates steam at a constant flow rate of 81.44 kg/s at P = 45.88 (bar) and temperature of T = 394 °C throughout the year in addition to the generation of electricity. THERMOFLEX with PEACE simulation software has been used to assess the performance of the integrated solar gas turbine cogeneration plant (ISGCP) for different gas turbine sizes under Dhahran weather conditions. Thermo-economic comparative analysis have been conducted to reach the optimal levelized electricity cost (LEC) and CO2 emission combination for each ISGCP configuration for each the three CSP technologies in comparison with the integration of CO2 capture technology to the conventional plant. The simulation results revealed that the optimal configuration is the integration of LFR with the steam side of a gas turbine cogeneration plant of 50 MWe, which gives a LEC of 5.1 US / kWh with 119 k tonne reduction of the annual CO2 emission.

Integrating solar thermal technologies with gas turbine cogeneration plants reduces fuel consumption and consequently results in a considerable reduction in gas emissions. These technologies are expected to play an important role in solving the global environmental and energy problems. The present work provides a detailed investigation of the technical and economic feasibility of integrating a Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC) system with gas turbine cogeneration system. In this regard, different generating capacities of gas turbine and areas of solar collectors have been examined and presented for a hybrid solar gas turbine cogeneration system that produces electricity and process steam at a rate of 81.44 kg/s at 394 °C and 45.88 bar. Thermoflex with PEACE simulation software has been used to assess the performance of each proposed integration design option. Optimum solar field size for each considered gas turbine generating capacity (size) has been identified. Also, the reduction in CO2 emissions due to the integration of PTC systems has been calculated as percentage of the CO2 emissions from the conventional system for each gas turbine generating capacity size. The results indicated that hybrid solar gas turbine cogeneration systems with gas turbine generating capacities less than 90 MWe demonstrate a negligible increase in the levelized electricity cost (LEC), which was between 5 US ¢ and 10 US ¢ /kW h. It was demonstrated also that integrating a PTC system with a gas turbine cogeneration system of less than 110 MWe generating capacity has more economic feasibility compared to CO2 capturing technologies.

The main criteria to assess a new solar thermal power plant are its performance and cost. Therefore, there is a need to present to the open literature a detailed modeling procedure and cost analyses to help researchers, engineers, and decision makers. The main objectives of this work are to develop a code and to evaluate the optical and thermal efficiencies of parabolic trough collectors (PTCs) solar field considering average hourly, daily, monthly, or annually averaged weather data; in addition to detailed cost analysis of the solar field. In this regard, a computer simulation code was developed using Engineering Equations Solver (EES). This simulation code was validated against Thermoflex code and data previously published in the public literature, and excellent agreements ware observed. The types of the PTC considered in the simulation are EuroTrough solar collector (ET-100) and for LUZ solar collector LS-3. The present study revealed that the maximum optical efficiency that can be reached in Dhahran is 73.5%, whereas the minimum optical efficiency is 61%. This study showed also that the specific cost for a PTC field per unit aperture area and the specific cost of different mechanical works can be cut by about 46% and 48% at 10 hectare and by about 72% and 75% at 160 hectare, respectively, compared to that at 2.8 hectare. On the other hand, the specific civil costs remain constant independent of the plant size. It was found that the ratio of the cost of the PTC to the solar field area decreases significantly as the solar field size increases. This decrement is very significant until the solar field size reaches 60 hectare and then the slope of the decrement is becoming insignificant. Therefore, it is recommended to have a solar field size of 60 hectare or larger.

The present work provides an economic feasibility and annual performance of integrated linear Fresnel reflector gas turbine trigeneration power plant (LFR-GTPP) that is progressively being installed to produce electricity, steam and chilled water. In order to pinpoint the best integration mode, different sizes of gas turbine and solar collector’s area have been examined and presented. Thermoflow software was used for evaluating the performance of each integrated design under consideration. The optimal solar integration sizes have been determined. Moreover, reduction in CO2 emissions due to integrating the LFR system is estimated with respect to that of the conventional trigeneration plant. For the considered trigeneration plant (that is required to produce 120.5 MW of steam, and 2500kg/s of chilled water), the study revealed that LFR-GTPP with gas turbine sizes less than 190 MWe capacities have more economic feasibility and sufficient ability for utilizing solar energy. The levelized electricity cost (LEC) for the (LFR-GTPP) varied between 4.28 USȼ and 5.6 USȼ/kWh. Furthermore, the study revealed that integrating LFR system with a conventional gas turbine trigeneration power plant in Sun Belt regions leads to a considerable avoidance in CO2 emissions compared to the conventional trigeneration plant.