Exergoeconomic and environmental performance assessment of the solar-assisted thermal power plant

Abstract

At a time when global climate change is imposing a mounting challenge to the economy of the world, conventional coal-fired steam power plants are under tremendous pressure to meet severe climatic protocols for achieving the set sustainable development goals. Therefore, this research work investigates the energetic, exergetic, economical and environmental performance of a 330 MWe sub-critical coal-fired thermal power plant integrated with solar thermal energy. The results of energetic and exergetic analyses show that the highest energy efficiency of 38.04% and the highest exergy efficiency of 36.22% are attained for Option 3. The environmental analysis performed using the fuel-saving approach shows that the maximum reduction in coal consumption and CO2 emissions also corresponds to Option 3. The economic analysis showed that for all three replacement options, the levelised cost of electricity is 4.52, 4.47, and 4.63 (Cents/kWh) and the simple payback period is 3.4, 3.3 and 3.6 (years), respectively.