Techno-Economic Assessment of Concentrating Solar Power and Wind Hybridization in Jordan

The variable renewable wind and solar resources have experienced a significant growth on its rate of deployment as a clean and competitive alternative for conventional power sources in Jordan. However, the variability of these sources have brought many technical challenges to grids. This paper presents a hybrid system that provides a firma capacity and improves dispatchability with an interesting financial perspective. This hybrid system includes a wind farm and a concentrated solar power plant with thermal energy storage. The performance analysis was conducted in terms of final yield and capacity factor, while the economic analysis investigated the levelized cost of electricity LCOE. The hybrid plant was simulated and optimized using TRNSYS 17 energy simulation software, minimizing the LCOE and considering a capacity factor higher than 65% as a constraint. Solar multiple and storage size were considered as decision variables. A strong complementarity between wind and direct normal solar radiation was observed in the selected location in Jordan, which emphasizes the attractiveness of the selected hybrid system. The optimal configuration of the CSP-wind hybrid system was obtained with a solar field of a 2.6 solar multiple and a 5 hours energy storage. The achieved capacity factor was 94%, and the LCOE is lower than those resulted for standalone CSP plants.