New integration mechanism of solar energy into 300 MW coal-fired power plant: Performance and techno-economic analysis

The hybridization of solar energy with a coal-fired power plant is a promising way to reduce the numerous environmental issues related to a coal-based power generation sector. This paper examines a novel integration mechanism of solar energy into a 300 MW coal-fired power plant to improve the performance and techno-economic feasibility of the proposed system while decreasing pollutant emissions by coal consumption reduction. The concept of a novel integration mechanism includes replacing a part of the steam being used in the steam turbine of the proposed system with steam produced using the solar field installed near the power plant. The performance and techno-economic analysis of a 300 MW solar coal hybrid power generation (SCHPG) system were investigated under four different reference days (i.e. 22nd of March, 22nd of June, 22nd of September, and 22nd of December). Although the results revealed that the SCHPG system can operate well over the year, it exhibited the highest performance and techno-economic feasibility for the 22nd of June due to the higher direct normal irradiance and small incidence angle. In contrast, the lowest performance and techno-economic feasibility occurred on the 22nd of December. Besides, the performance and techno-economic feasibility for the 22nd of March and 22nd of September are almost similar.