Feasibility study on concentrated solar power plants in Malaysia / Choy De Jen

The rapidly growing economy and population in Southeast Asia has elevated the need for affordable, secured, sustainable and environmentally friendly energy sources. One such energy source is solar energy which is a suitable energy source for most Southeast Asian countries which are within the Sun Belt region. This study performs a performance and financial analysis on concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies, specifically the solar power tower (SPT) in the Malaysian environment through the use of simulation software. The significance of the study lies in the fact that limited research has been done on CSP technologies in Malaysia and the study is in-line with the government’s effort to achieve 20% electricity generation from renewable energy by 2035. The layout optimization of the solar field was done using the SolarPILOT software which served as an input to the System Advisory Model (SAM) software where the performance and financial analysis were performed. Results based on the analysis showed that the capacity of the CSP models for KLIA and Gaya Island are 13.7 MWe with an annual energy production of 41,145,964 kWh and 57,999,736 kWh respectively. The net capital cost for both plants are RM 368,563,644 and RM 352,014,120 with a positive NPV of RM 32,649,339 and RM 30,965,316 respectively. The PPA price for the KLIA plant was found to exceed the Malaysian government’s Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) rate while the Gaya Island plant maintained below that rate. LCOE values for both CSP models were found to exceed the national average value of 0.78 RM/kWh. The study showed that the Solar Power Tower (SPT) technology is feasible in both the performance and economical aspects provided the required PPA price is agreed upon. However, it may not be the best option due to the higher cost and labor requirements compared to technologies like solar PV