Techno-economic analysis of solar parabolic trough type energy system for garment zone of Jaipur city

Energy crisis and environmental problems require a new sustainable energy supply option that uses renewable energies and is economic at the same time. Solar Thermal Power (STP) generating systems are proven renewable energy technologies and often a very cost effective way to produce electricity from solar radiation. In this paper, the potential and the cost-effectiveness of a parabolic trough collector (PTC) type solar thermal power plant for meeting the energy demand of garment zone at Sitapura industrial area, Jaipur is analyzed. In this, the present energy demand of garment zone, design of proposed solar power plant and economic evaluation of the power plant has been carried out. The estimated energy requirement of the selected garment zone was 2.21 MW for year 2011. To meet the present energy demand and expected increase in the demand a PTC type solar power plant of 2.5 MW capacity is proposed, which require about 15.76 acres of land area and has 256 solar collector elements. Looking to the scarcity and cost of the land near the city, off-site proposal of the power plant has also been considered and compared with on-site option. Four economic scenarios were analyzed for the proposed system and their financial performance is evaluated. For the onsite solar power plant internal rate of return is 19.21%, NPV at 10% discount rate is 372.77 million INR, simple payback period is 5 years and discounted payback period @10% is 7 years and 4 months, while for the off-site power plant IRR is 27.85%, NPV is 550.55 million INR, simple payback period is 3 years and 6 months and discounted payback period is 4 years and 7 months. Levelised cost of energy (LCOE) for onsite power plant is Rs 9.41/kWh and for offsite power plant is Rs 6.89/kWh.