Comparative Study of Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) for Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) and Photovoltaic (PV) Plant in the Southeastern Region of Bangladesh

Abstract

Most of the renewables particularly Solar PV are intermittent. For this, dispatchable energy sources are required in the energy mix. Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is dispatchable in nature. The aim of this work is to conduct the feasibility study of Parabolic Trough, Power Tower and Solar PV plant (with and without battery storage) and compare their performances. As south-east part of Bangladesh has better solar potential, four locations of Chittagong (Bashkhali, Sandwip, Maheshkhali, and Vashan Char) are taken as reference places. During evaluating the feasibility study, various ratings of power plants like 200MW, 150MW, 100MW, 50MW, 25MW, 5MW have been considered. Finally, optimization has been conducted with respect to Solar Multiple (SM) and Thermal Energy Storage (TES). System Advisor Model (SAM) has been used to perform the simulation work. Optimized results of CSP plants have been compared with the same MW grid-connected PV power plants. Results show that Solar PV plant has better performance compared with CSP. Among the four locations, BASHKHALI is the best for implementing solar power plants.