Dry cooling of concentrating solar power (CSP) plants, an economic competitive option for the desert regions of the MENA region

The objective of this work is to investigate the competitiveness of dry cooling of steam power blocks of concentrating solar power (CSP) plants in comparison to wet cooling in the arid zone of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). A case study is performed for this purpose in the Ma’an area in southern Jordan. In Ma’an water is scarce, expensive and restricted. Thus dry cooling of a power block is an attractive option. For the study purposes, a reference parabolic trough CSP power plant that is based on design of Andasol power plant in southern Spain is considered. The reference power plant has a nominal capacity of 50 MWel with 7.5 full load storage hours and is simulated with Greenius software (DLR, 2001) for both dry and wet cooling options. The reference power plant is simulated in its original location in order to validate the results using actual values of the plant. Thereafter, simulations were conducted for the power plant at the case study site with the help of high precision ground measured meteorological data provided by the DLR’s enerMENA meteorological (DLR, 2012) station installed on site. The technical simulation at the selected site predicted good economic results thanks to the site’s high direct normal irradiation (DNI) values and normal ambient temperatures (around 5628 h 10–30 �C). Although dry cooling increases cost versus wet cooling, dry cooled CSP plants still a competitive option in hot arid regions with excellent solar resource such as Ma’an and can even realize lower cost than equivalent wet-cooled plants located in regions with lower solar resource. In this context, from the technical and economical point of view, the dry cooling option in Ma’an showed to be feasible. The reference power plant produces at the selected site in Jordan with dry cooling option 180.54 GW he net annual energy yield, with 4108 full load operating hours. 13.1% annual mean overall efficiency, with a water consumption of 59,991 m3/a, and 0.1444 €/kW h the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). Whereas, the wet cooled reference power plant produces 201.06 GW he net annual energy yield, with 4399 full load operating hours. 14.6% annual mean overall efficiency, water consumption of 751,618 m3/a, and 0.1258 €/kW h LCOE. By comparing the wet cooled reference Andasol power plant in Spain with the same but dry cooled power plant in Jordan, following outputs are resulted: the overall efficiency of the dry cooled plant in Ma’an is reduced by 3.1%, the water consumption reduced by 92%. The energy yield increased by 21.8%, and the LCOE reduced by 18.8%. The results of this study prove that dry cooled CSP power plants in sites with significantly high DNI values is an attractive economic and technical option to be considered in future planning of new projects