A techno-economic appraisal of parabolic trough collector and central tower receiver based solar thermal power plants in India: Effect of nominal capacity and hours of thermal energy storage

•Capital cost estimated for 50 MW to 200 MW plants with 0 to 18 h of thermal energy storage.•Comparison of techno-economic performance of parabolic trough and central tower receiver based plants.•Effect of the economy of scale with respect to nominal capacity and thermal energy storage.•Identification of attractive combination(s) of nominal capacity and hours of thermal energy storage.