IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v161y2022ics1364032122002763.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Concentrating solar thermal power generation in Sudan: Potential and challenges

Author

Listed:
  • Gamil, Ahmed
  • Li, Peiwen
  • Ali, Babkir
  • Hamid, Mohamed Ali

Abstract

Sudan is a sunbelt country that has abundant solar resources and large wasteland areas, especially in the northern and western portions. Concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies are proven renewable energy (RE) systems to generate electricity in neighboring countries from solar radiation and have the potential to become cost-effective in the future. Most of the attention is given to solar photovoltaic (PV) systems; no thorough techno-economic study has been carried out to evaluate the potential for CSP technologies in Sudan. The main aim of this paper is to encourage Sudan's authorities to pursue CSP technologies and overcome the associated challenges. The study used techno-economic analysis for two of the most mature CSP technologies – solar power tower (SPT) and parabolic trough (PT) technology – to produce electricity in Sudan. Two commercial CSP plants, namely GEMASOLAR and ANDASOL-1, have been “hypothetically” relocated in six Sudanese zones using the system advisor model (SAM). These zones were scrutinized based on a rigorous technical CSP site assessment study. The results indicate that the nominated zones outperformed the original Spanish plants in terms of energy outputs, capacity factors (CF), and levelized cost of energy (LCOE). The Northern state has two zones near Wadi-Halfa that are most suitable for installing CSP systems, with the SPT system offering better outcomes than the PT. This study proposes a 5 MWe SPT pilot plant with optimum specifications, enabling decision-makers to take further actions. It also recommends some actions to promote this sector and meet the 2030 and 2050 RE targets.

Suggested Citation

  • Gamil, Ahmed & Li, Peiwen & Ali, Babkir & Hamid, Mohamed Ali, 2022. "Concentrating solar thermal power generation in Sudan: Potential and challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:161:y:2022:i:c:s1364032122002763
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2022.112366
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032122002763
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2022.112366?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Balghouthi, Moncef & Trabelsi, Seif Eddine & Amara, Mahmoud Ben & Ali, Abdessalem Bel Hadj & Guizani, Amenallah, 2016. "Potential of concentrating solar power (CSP) technology in Tunisia and the possibility of interconnection with Europe," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1227-1248.
    2. Amadei, C.A. & Allesina, G. & Tartarini, P. & Yuting, Wu, 2013. "Simulation of GEMASOLAR-based solar tower plants for the Chinese energy market: Influence of plant downsizing and location change," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 366-373.
    3. Purohit, Ishan & Purohit, Pallav, 2017. "Technical and economic potential of concentrating solar thermal power generation in India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 648-667.
    4. Fadlallah, Sulaiman O. & Benhadji Serradj, Djamal Eddine & Sedzro, Delight M., 2021. "Is this the right time for Sudan to replace diesel-powered generator systems with wind turbines?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 40-54.
    5. Behar, Omar & Khellaf, Abdallah & Mohammedi, Kamal, 2013. "A review of studies on central receiver solar thermal power plants," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 12-39.
    6. Dawson, Lucas & Schlyter, Peter, 2012. "Less is more: Strategic scale site suitability for concentrated solar thermal power in Western Australia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 91-101.
    7. Omer, Abdeen Mustafa, 2007. "Renewable energy resources for electricity generation in Sudan," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 11(7), pages 1481-1497, September.
    8. Tlhalerwa, Keabile & Mulalu, Mulalu, 2019. "Assessment of the concentrated solar power potential in Botswana," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 294-306.
    9. Janjai, S. & Laksanaboonsong, J. & Seesaard, T., 2011. "Potential application of concentrating solar power systems for the generation of electricity in Thailand," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(12), pages 4960-4967.
    10. Purohit, Ishan & Purohit, Pallav, 2010. "Techno-economic evaluation of concentrating solar power generation in India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 3015-3029, June.
    11. Omer, Abdeen Mustafa, 1997. "Compilation and evaluation of solar and wind energy resources in Sudan," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 39-69.
    12. Belgasim, Basim & Aldali, Yasser & Abdunnabi, Mohammad J.R. & Hashem, Gamal & Hossin, Khaled, 2018. "The potential of concentrating solar power (CSP) for electricity generation in Libya," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 1-15.
    13. Trieb, Franz & Müller-Steinhagen, Hans & Kern, Jürgen, 2011. "Financing concentrating solar power in the Middle East and North Africa--Subsidy or investment?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 307-317, January.
    14. Charabi, Yassine & Gastli, Adel, 2010. "GIS assessment of large CSP plant in Duqum, Oman," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 835-841, February.
    15. World Bank, 2019. "From Subsidy to Sustainability," World Bank Publications - Reports 33702, The World Bank Group.
    16. Li, Yuqiang & Liao, Shengming & Rao, Zhenghua & Liu, Gang, 2014. "A dynamic assessment based feasibility study of concentrating solar power in China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 34-42.
    17. Desideri, Umberto & Campana, Pietro Elia, 2014. "Analysis and comparison between a concentrating solar and a photovoltaic power plant," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 422-433.
    18. Shouman, Enas R. & Khattab, N.M., 2015. "Future economic of concentrating solar power (CSP) for electricity generation in Egypt," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1119-1127.
    19. Omer, Abdeen Mustafa, 2008. "Water resources and freshwater ecosystems in Sudan," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 12(8), pages 2066-2091, October.
    20. Omer, Abdeen M., 2005. "Biomass energy potential and future prospect in Sudan," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 1-27, February.
    21. Ali, Babkir, 2018. "Comparative assessment of the feasibility for solar irrigation pumps in Sudan," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 413-420.
    22. Labordena, Mercè & Patt, Anthony & Bazilian, Morgan & Howells, Mark & Lilliestam, Johan, 2017. "Impact of political and economic barriers for concentrating solar power in Sub-Saharan Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 52-72.
    23. Omer, A.M., 2002. "Overview of renewable energy sources in the Republic of the Sudan," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 523-547.
    24. Fluri, Thomas P., 2009. "The potential of concentrating solar power in South Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5075-5080, December.
    25. Johan Lilliestam & Mercè Labordena & Anthony Patt & Stefan Pfenninger, 2017. "Empirically observed learning rates for concentrating solar power and their responses to regime change," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 2(7), pages 1-6, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tarun Kumar Aseri & Chandan Sharma & Tara C. Kandpal, 2022. "Condenser cooling technologies for concentrating solar power plants: a review," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 4511-4565, April.
    2. Ajbar, Wassila & Parrales, A. & Huicochea, A. & Hernández, J.A., 2022. "Different ways to improve parabolic trough solar collectors’ performance over the last four decades and their applications: A comprehensive review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    3. Islam, Md Tasbirul & Huda, Nazmul & Saidur, R., 2019. "Current energy mix and techno-economic analysis of concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies in Malaysia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 789-806.
    4. Islam, Md Tasbirul & Huda, Nazmul & Abdullah, A.B. & Saidur, R., 2018. "A comprehensive review of state-of-the-art concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies: Current status and research trends," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 987-1018.
    5. Ji, Junping & Tang, Hua & Jin, Peng, 2019. "Economic potential to develop concentrating solar power in China: A provincial assessment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Xu, Xinhai & Vignarooban, K. & Xu, Ben & Hsu, K. & Kannan, A.M., 2016. "Prospects and problems of concentrating solar power technologies for power generation in the desert regions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1106-1131.
    7. Damien Bazin & Nouri Chtourou & Amna Omri, 2019. "Risk management and policy implications for concentrating solar power technology investments in Tunisia," Post-Print hal-02061788, HAL.
    8. Sultan, Ali J. & Hughes, Kevin J. & Ingham, Derek B. & Ma, Lin & Pourkashanian, Mohamed, 2020. "Techno-economic competitiveness of 50 MW concentrating solar power plants for electricity generation under Kuwait climatic conditions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    9. Ali, Babkir, 2018. "Comparative assessment of the feasibility for solar irrigation pumps in Sudan," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 413-420.
    10. Chen, Fuying & Yang, Qing & Zheng, Niting & Wang, Yuxuan & Huang, Junling & Xing, Lu & Li, Jianlan & Feng, Shuanglei & Chen, Guoqian & Kleissl, Jan, 2022. "Assessment of concentrated solar power generation potential in China based on Geographic Information System (GIS)," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    11. Belgasim, Basim & Aldali, Yasser & Abdunnabi, Mohammad J.R. & Hashem, Gamal & Hossin, Khaled, 2018. "The potential of concentrating solar power (CSP) for electricity generation in Libya," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 1-15.
    12. Wu, Yunna & Zhang, Buyuan & Wu, Chenghao & Zhang, Ting & Liu, Fangtong, 2019. "Optimal site selection for parabolic trough concentrating solar power plant using extended PROMETHEE method: A case in China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 1910-1927.
    13. Dowling, Alexander W. & Zheng, Tian & Zavala, Victor M., 2017. "Economic assessment of concentrated solar power technologies: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1019-1032.
    14. Usaola, Julio, 2012. "Participation of CSP plants in the reserve markets: A new challenge for regulators," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 562-571.
    15. Hoz, Jordi de la & Martín, Helena & Montalà, Montserrat & Matas, José & Guzman, Ramon, 2018. "Assessing the 2014 retroactive regulatory framework applied to the concentrating solar power systems in Spain," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 1377-1399.
    16. Martín, Helena & de la Hoz, Jordi & Velasco, Guillermo & Castilla, Miguel & García de Vicuña, José Luís, 2015. "Promotion of concentrating solar thermal power (CSP) in Spain: Performance analysis of the period 1998–2013," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1052-1068.
    17. Sharma, Chandan & Sharma, Ashish K. & Mullick, Subhash C. & Kandpal, Tara C., 2015. "Assessment of solar thermal power generation potential in India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 902-912.
    18. Zhao, Zhen-Yu & Chen, Yu-Long & Thomson, John Douglas, 2017. "Levelized cost of energy modeling for concentrated solar power projects: A China study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 117-127.
    19. Aqachmar, Zineb & Allouhi, Amine & Jamil, Abdelmajid & Gagouch, Belgacem & Kousksou, Tarik, 2019. "Parabolic trough solar thermal power plant Noor I in Morocco," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 572-584.
    20. Meybodi, Mehdi Aghaei & Beath, Andrew C., 2016. "Impact of cost uncertainties and solar data variations on the economics of central receiver solar power plants: An Australian case study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 510-524.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:161:y:2022:i:c:s1364032122002763. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.