Economic Assessment of Concrete and Floating Based Solar Chimney Power Plants in Bangladesh

Limited fossil fuel resources and associated environmental concerns require alternatively sustainable and economically feasible electricity generation technologies. Solar chimney power plants utilize solar thermal energy to generate electricity. Floating Solar Chimney Power Plant (FSCPP), a variant of solar chimney power plant using rubber as the materials for the chimney, has attracted significant attention due to relatively longer project life. In Bangladesh, the electricity demand is increasing with the increase of population and the living standard. Supplying this large electricity demand with the existing energy resources are getting challenging day by day. As a result, the policymakers are opting for alternative energy sources that will ensure fulfilling this ever-increasing electricity demand. In this regard, renewable energy sources are considered as feasible alternatives in rural and coastal areas with limited or no access to the grid. A solar chimney power plant is considered a promising technology for large scale utilization of solar thermal energy. In this power plant, solar radiation is utilized to heat the air enclosed beneath transparent solar collectors and the ground. Driven by density difference, the hot air flows towards the chimney and rotates the generator placed within. In this work, upon briefly discussing the construction of such power plants, the economic analysis is presented for a 100 MW floating chimney power plant and compared with the commonly used concrete solar chimney power plant (CSCPP) and the existing fossil fuel power plants. The results suggest the FSCPP power plants can generate electricity at a much lower cost than CSCPP power plants. Also, FSCPP power plants are economically competitive with existing HFO based power plants (0.131 USD/kWh) and are inexpensive compared to HSD based power plants (0.241 USD/kWh) in terms of cost of electricity generated.