Solar chimney power plant (SCPP) with a long life span is a promising large-scale solar thermal utilization technology. This paper performs an economic analysis for the conventional solar chimney power plant (CSCPP) and the sloped solar chimney power plant (SSCPP) in Northwest China. Cash flows are influenced by many factors including the investment, the payback period, the inflation rate, and the sale price of solar electricity. The techno-economic analyses of the CSCPPs and SSCPPs are performed taking Lanzhou, China as a case study. The results show that the SCPP investment is influenced by both its configuration and the material price, and the SSCPP is more cost-effective than the CSCPP during the system life span. In addition, the SCPP with large power capacity holds good competitiveness with the conventional fossil fuel combustion plants. The economic evaluation of building SCPPs in Northwest China is of high significance considering the local abundant solar radiation, favorable government policy, and under-developing economics.
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March 2013
Research Article|
March 27 2013
Economic analysis of solar chimney power plants in Northwest China
Fei Cao;
Fei Cao
1State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering,
Xi'an Jiaotong University
, No. 28 West Xianning Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, People's Republic of China
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Huashan Li;
Huashan Li
2
Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy and Gas Hydrate, Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China
3University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing,
People's Republic of China
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Liang Zhao;
Liang Zhao
a)
1State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering,
Xi'an Jiaotong University
, No. 28 West Xianning Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, People's Republic of China
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Liejin Guo
Liejin Guo
1State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering,
Xi'an Jiaotong University
, No. 28 West Xianning Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, People's Republic of China
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a)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: xjtu.lzhao@gmail.com. Tel.:+86-29-82668287. Fax: +86-29-82669033.
J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 5, 021406 (2013)
Article history
Received:
September 07 2012
Accepted:
February 06 2013
Citation
Fei Cao, Huashan Li, Liang Zhao, Liejin Guo; Economic analysis of solar chimney power plants in Northwest China. J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 1 March 2013; 5 (2): 021406. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4798434
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