Simulation of Parabolic Trough Solar Power Plant in Basrah City

A simulation for a solar thermal electric generating system with parabolic trough collectors in Basrah city is presented. This system consists of three parts: solar collector fields to heating the working fluid, a storage system to store the thermal energy, and power conversion system to convert the thermal energy to electrical. The simulation is presented for all parts. The energy conversion of solar radiation into thermal power along the absorber tube of the parabolic collector is studied. The coupling between the collector and the thermodynamic cycle is made up by heat exchangers, yielding the characteristic temperatures of the cycle. The conventional Rankine cycle is used as the thermodynamic cycle, whereby the electric power is calculated. The performance of a 30 MW power plant, composed of 50 rows with 16 collectors in series (total 800 collectors) was simulated. Finally, the output power of the plant is calculated for two cases: system with storage tank and with out it. A maximum of the overall cycle efficiency is found at temperatures around 320 oC. All calculations are performed according to Basrah climate's conditions for 21st of each month in 2007.