Design and Sizing of Solar Thermal Power Plant (STPP) in Egypt

Solar thermal power is a prime choice in developing an affordable, feasible, global energy source that is able to substitute for fossil fuels in the sunbelts around the world. Solar thermal technologies, especially parabolic trough concentrators (PTC) are more convenient for concentrating power station. This paper presents the design and sizing of a parabolic trough solar thermal electric power plant with a net capacity of 1 MW using direct steam generation in one of Suez Suburbs in Egypt. 1 MW electric power generated during the day sunny periods is used to feed a small local grid in a suburb of Suez. A EUROTROUGH solar collector is used, it is found that, the solar field is constituted of 40 collectors grouped in 10 loops, and the estimated solar field area is 22680 m². Also, this study includes a thermodynamic analysis of a vapor power plant and the Rankine cycle of 1 MW steam power plant is modeled and analyzed. The oil and steam mass flow rates are found to be 2.252 kg/s and 1.4 kg/s respectively. The thermal efficiency of the parabolic trough solar collector (PTSC) is found to be 71% and the total plant efficiency is 28. 3%.