Techno economic performances of a dry cooling solar power tower plant under Algerian climate

The Sahara represents more than 80% of the total area of Algeria. This region is characterised by the high level of solar energy potential. On the other hand, concentrating solar power plants represent 70% of the total power to be installed in the framework of the national plan of renewable energy and energy efficiency which consists of installing up 22,000 MW of power generating capacity from renewable sources between 2011 and 2030. In this purpose, this article presents a techno economic assessment of a 100 MW of solar power tower plant for electricity generation located in one typical site of the Saharan environment of Algeria (Tamanrasset). The NREL's solar advisor model (SAM) software is used to evaluate the monthly energy production, annual energy output, levelised cost of energy (LCOE) and the net present value (NPV) for this study.