Potential application of concentrating solar power systems for the generation of electricity in Thailand

S. Janjai, J. Laksanaboonsong and T. Seesaard

Applied Energy, 2011, vol. 88, issue 12, 4960-4967

Abstract: This study aims to investigate a potential application of concentrating solar power (CSP) systems for producing electricity in the tropical environment of Thailand. An 8-year period (1995–2002) of satellite data was used to generate the direct normal irradiation map of the country. The map reveals that the areas which receive the highest irradiation are mainly in the Northeast and the Central regions of the country, with the yearly sum of direct normal irradiation in the range of 1350–1400kWh/m2year. The location of Ubon Ratchathani (15.25°N, 104.87°E) situated in the Northeast was selected as a target area for investigating the potential application of CSP systems. The performance of three 10MW CSP systems, namely the parabolic trough, the tower and the dish/Stirling engine systems was investigated. A software named TRNSYS together with the solar thermal electric components (STEC) subroutines were used to simulate the systems. The yearly production of electricity from these systems was estimated and used for the economic evaluation of the systems. It was found that the parabolic trough system afforded the lowest levelized electricity cost of 0.30USD/kWh. Based on the technical and economic considerations, this system has a sufficient potential for producing electricity in this region.

Keywords: Solar energy; Concentrating solar power technology; Tropical environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261911004338
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:88:y:2011:i:12:p:4960-4967

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2011.06.044

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().