Simulating the Energy, Economic and Environmental Performance of Concentrating Solar Power Technologies Using SAM

Abstract

According to the Libyan government's newly released strategic plan, renewable and environmentally friendly energy sources would provide 30% of the country's power by 2030. The goal of this research is to shed light on solar energy technologies that may be used to generate clean and sustainable electricity. An energy-economic-environmental study of five Concentration Solar Power (CSP) technologies (parabolic trough, solar dish, linear Fresnel reflector, solar tower, and concentrated PV solar cell) was conducted for 22 selected locations in Libya. The Levelized Cost Of Energy (LCOE) was chosen as a reference for identifying which technology would be most suited for each site. The economic estimates include the cost of environmental damage caused by carbon dioxide gas (CO2) emissions from fossil-fuel-powered power plants. This technique allows clean and renewable energy to compete fairly in the global energy market, even in countries that produce oil and subsidize electricity. According to the data, the solar mirror technology in Libya has the lowest LCOE of all the technologies evaluated in this study. The LCOE estimates varied from 0.01 to 0.04 dollars per kWh. The clean energy produced by the solar tower surpassed 100 MW, or about 400.332 GWh. Furthermore, the adoption of clean concentrating solar energy technology avoided the discharge of 4,235 tCO2/year/MWp.

Ensuring sustainability in Libya with renewable energy and pumped hydro storage

“…The average annual GHI concentration ranges from 5.6 to 6.7 kWh/m 2 , with higher values inland and lower values along the coast. PV installations in Libya have proven to be successful (Jenkins et al, 2019;Nassar et al, 2023b). The average daily DNI ranges from 4.2 to over 7.2 kWh/m 2 , with the highest values observed in the north-south region.…”

“…8). To provide some context, a developed economy typically requires one day of energy usage to offset 100% renewable energy (Stocks et al, 2021).The variation in solar energy supply throughout the seasons in Libya is moderate, ranging from 75% of the average in winter to 125% in spring (Nassar et al, 2023b). This implies a need for substantial seasonal storage.…”