The techno-economic comparison of solar power generation methods for Turkish Republic of North Cyprus

The objective of this work is to examine and compare the techno-economic and environmental feasibility of 40MW photovoltaic (PV) power plant and 40MW parabolic trough (PT) power plant to be installed in two different cities, namely Nicosia and Famagusta in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). Long term solar radiation and sunshine data for Nicosia and Famagusta are considered and analysed to assess the distribution of solar radiation, sunshine duration, and air temperature. In addition, these two different technologies with same rated power of 40MW will be compared with the performance of the proposed Solar Power Plant at Bari, Italy. The project viability analysis is performed using System Advisor Model (SAM) through Annual Energy Production and economic parameters for both cities. It is found that for the two cities; Nicosia and Famagusta, considered through this study, the PT plants produce more energy than PV plant. It is also observed that installation of the PT system near an existing steam turbine power plant will make the investment more feasible if the steam produced by the PT system is used to run the steam turbine power plant. The high temperatures that are used to produce steam for the turbines in the PT plant system can be supplemented with a secondary plant based on natural gas or other biofuels and can be used as backup. Although the initial investment of PT plant is higher, it has higher economic return and occupies smaller area compared to PV plant of the same capacity.