Potential assessment of a parabolic trough solar thermal power plant considering hourly analysis: ANN-based approach

The results show that it is possible to get minimum values of LCOE of 8.3 and 7.0 cent$/kWh for oil and salt configurations, respectively. Moreover, because of the difference in dispatch of thermal energy system and solar field aperture area of the plants, the annual power generation and capacity factor of salt plant are much higher than those of oil plant with a difference of around 26%.