Thermal production and heat cost analysis of the potential of solar concentrators for industrial process applications: A case study in six sites in Morocco

Industrial Process Heat (IPH) represents a promising sector of application for solar concentration technologies – the Linear Fresnel Reflectors (LFR) as an alternative to the conventional source of thermal energy. Morocco is endowed with an abundant solar resource as other countries in the MENA region, with high level of DNI available over the year especially in the southeast, mid-south, and the south (Moroccan Sahara Desert). The main objective of this work is to assess the potential of solar thermal production of industrial process heat considering six different sites in Morocco. The evaluation has been done with respect to the Levelized Cost of Heat (LCoH), representing the whole production cost structure. This study includes as well a comparison of the same application in Stellenbosch (South Africa) and Andasol (Spain). The results show that the annual thermal production is 7.2 GWh-th/year in Zagora, 6.4 GWh-th/year in Missour, and around 6.3 GWh-th/year in Ben-Guerir and Erfoud. As expected, the Moroccan sites show, in general, higher thermal energy production with +1.4 GWh-th/year in Zagora compared to the Andasol site, and +2.9 GWh-th/year compared to Stellenbosch. The cheapest LCoH has been found to be 2.47 c$/kWh-th in Zagora, whereas it was 4.02 c$/kWh-th in Stellenbosch and 3.04 c$/kWh-th in Andasol, with a difference of +62.75% and +23.1% respectively.