Cost analysis of concentrated solar power plant with thermal energy storage system in Bangladesh

Electricity is one of the most vital ingredients of socio-economic development of a developing country like Bangladesh. Sufficient supply of electricity is essential for attracting both domestic and foreign investment. Bangladesh electricity generation is heavily dependent on fossil fuel mostly natural gas. Due to lack of gas supply to the power plants, the Bangladesh government has ordered partial shut-down of natural gas stations in and around the capital to counter a growing power crisis. Furthermore, the price of liquid fuel is shooting up in a significant rate each year which is equally difficult for Bangladesh to purchase fuel from international vendors. It is therefore, necessary to switch to an alternative source of power generation which will be sustainable and environment friendly such as solar energy. Considering the electricity demand pattern, the use of molten-salt thermal energy storage (TES) system is proposed in this paper. The TES system will allow supplying power during the pick electricity demand period. With a detailed cost break down of solar thermal power plant along with a steam generated power plant and a liquid source power plant, this paper intends to establish the fact that, concentrated solar power (CSP) with TES is economically profitable in the long term for Bangladesh. This proposal may help the power system policy makers of Bangladesh Government to take solar thermal power into a careful consideration in order to incorporate this technology to the national grid.