Simulation and Comparative Study of the Effect of the Wet and Dry Cooling Modes on the Performance of Parabolic Trough Solar Thermal Power Plants in the Arid Zone of Morocco

The primary goal of this research is to evaluate the competitiveness of technology in concentrated solar power (CSP) plant under the weather conditions of Ouarzazate city located in the south of Morocco. Thus, a techno-economic comparison of wet and dry cooling modes in a parabolic trough plant (PTC) using molten salt as a thermal storage medium was performed using the System Advisor Model (SAM) software. This research is based on an evaluation of thermodynamic yield, water cooling demand, and the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). The results demonstrate that the dry cooling option can make a significant reduction in water consumption by almost 94% in the PTC plant. However, the annual energy and capacity factor have been dropped by around 7.1% when compared to the PTC plant with a wet (evaporative) cooling mode. Because of the increase in equipment costs for dry a cooling system, the actual and nominal LCOE increased by 7.3%. Based on these findings, we can infer that dry cooled solar PTC plants are technically and economically feasible for Ouarzazate city, which has an arid climate and a shortage of water, and we recommend that this technology be implemented in similar places.