Design of parabolic trough collector solar field for future solar thermal power plants in Algeria

The main future challenge for Algeria is to realize the self-sufficiency from solar electricity and its exportation; because it has the best annual solar potential in the Mediterranean basin, estimated by 169 TWh. Now Algeria has planned a program of capacity 22 000 MW in which the considerable share is renewable origin for horizon 2030. The program includes photovoltaic and solar thermal power plants (STPPs). The main objective of the present paper is the design of parabolic Trough solar field for future scheduled STPPs both the ISCCS and SEGS systems for Algeria. The range of the designed solar field output thermal power is from 63 to 107 MWth. The solar field model is similar to that of Lippek (1995) and is based on experimental measurements of the SEGS LS-2 trough collector performance. It uses a synthetic-oil heat transfer fluid (Therminol VP-1) in the collector loops to transfer thermal energy to Rankine cycle via heat exchangers train. The designed parameters include the net output thermal power, the output HTF mass flow rate, the solar field efficiency and the required HTF pumping power, this is for different solar field aperture area, site of Tamanrasset is taken as a case study and the results obtained showed that the solar field works several hours above the design point.