Potential of Concentrated Solar Power in the Western Region of Saudi Arabia: A GIS-Based Land Suitability Analysis and Techno-Economic Feasibility Assessment

Abstract

The Authors acknowledge the support provided by King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (K.A.CARE) under K.A.CARE-King Abdulaziz University (KAU) Collaboration Program."ABSTRACT Saudi Arabia (SA) relies on fossil fuels to meet its growing demand for electricity and rapid industrialization, contributing to climate change. Solar energy is one of the promising renewable energy sources (RES) with a significant potential in SA, and Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is a particularly promising solar technology due to its ability to provide dispatchable electricity with thermal energy storage (TES). This study presents an integrated energy model comprises of site suitability and techno-economic analyses for utility-scale CSP technology. The study investigates the potential and applicability of CSP technology for power generation in the western region of SA in two phases: site suitability analysis, and techno-economic assessment. The goal of phase one is to identify the optimal location of CSP plants by dint of combined Fuzzy-Boolean Logic and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) using GIS tools. This novel approach provides a more comprehensive and robust analysis for evaluating suitable sites, accounting for uncertainty and ambiguity in decision-making and prioritizing criteria based on relative importance, thus making a novel contribution to the field. The analysis showed that 70 % of the province land is suitable for CSP deployment, with Makkah, Taif, Al-Khumra, and Turbah having the most suitable locations. In the second phase, two commercial CSP plants, Shams-1 and Noor III, were adopted in SA to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of CSP plants adopted in five nominated sites that are located in the most suitable areas. The analysis showed that the lowest levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for utility-scale CSP plants in Makkah province is 9.58 ¢/kWh for parabolic trough (PT) technology and 9.17 ¢/kWh for solar power tower (SPT) technology. Sensitivity analysis of TES showed that CSP plants with 8 hours of TES have the optimal configuration that produces electricity with lowest LCOE and highest capacity factor (CF). The overall findings of this study suggest that CSP is a viable and promising renewable energy (RE) technology for SA. The proposed site selection methodology can help to identify suitable sites for CSP plants, and the techno-economic analysis shows that CSP plants with TES can be cost-effective and reliable.INDEX TERMS Analytical hierarchy process, concentrated solar power, geographic information system, multi-criteria decision-making, site suitability analysis, techno-economic analysis.

Functional Failure Criticality Assessment and Control of Power Distribution Systems: Failure Prioritization Using AHP

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