Technical and economic assessment of the integrated solar combined cycle power plants in Iran

Thermal efficiency, capacity factor, environmental considerations, investment, fuel and O&M22Operation and maintenance. costs are the main parameters for technical and economic assessment of solar power plants. This analysis has shown that the Integrated Solar Combined Cycle System with 67MWe solar field (ISCCS-67) is the most suitable plan for the first solar power plant in Iran. The Levelized Energy Costs (LEC) of combined cycle and ISCCS-67 power plants would be equal if 49 million $ of ISCCS-67 capital cost supplied by the international environmental organizations such as Global Environmental Facilities (GEF) and World Bank. This study shows that an ISCCS-67 saves 59 million $ in fuel consumption and reduces about 2.4 million ton in CO2 emission during 30 years operating period. Increasing of steam turbine capacity by 50%, and 4% improvement in overall efficiency are other advantages of ISCCS-67 power plant. The LEC of ISCCS-67 is 10 and 33% lower than the combined cycle and gas turbine, respectively, at the same capacity factor with consideration of environmental costs.