Economic and Thermodynamic Analysis of Integrated Combined Cycle Based on Gas Turbines with Concentrated Solar Power

Abstract

The aim of this work is to execute a thermoeconomic analysis of the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) of a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine with a Concentrated Solar Power Plant (CCGT-CSP), designed and analyzed using TRNSYS software. The power plant operates with hybrid combustion, mixing hydrogen with natural gas in proportions of 20% and 40% of the total hydrogen volume, in two cases. This study also aims to calculate the Levelized Cost of Hydrogen (LCOH). Two methods were used to achieve these goals, the first being a separation of low, medium and high cases and the calculation of levelized costs for each of these cases, and the second being a Monte Carlo approach aimed at understanding the statistical influence of future fuel costs. Regarding the results, for the 20% hydrogen case, the LCOE ranged from 4.61 to 8.01 US cents/kWh in the high and low cases, respectively, with an intermediate case of 6.17 US cents/kWh. For the 40% hydrogen case, the LCOE varied between 4.52 and 7.81 US cents/kWh, with an intermediate case of 6.02 US cents/kWh. As for LCOH, values for the 20% hydrogen case ranged from US$3.42/kg to US$5.72/kg, with an intermediate case of US$4.48/kg. For the 40% hydrogen case, values varied between US$3.36/kg and US$5.59/kg, with an intermediate case of US$4.39/kg. The Monte Carlo approach allowed to build a distribution showing the statistical variation of the LCOE with the probability of the fuel price.