Solar aided power generation: A review

Solar Aided Power Generation (SAPG) is the most efficient and economic way to hybridize solar thermal energy and a fossil fuel fired regenerative Rankine cycle (RRC) power plant for power generation purposes. In such an SAPG plant, the solar thermal energy is used to displace the extraction steam by preheating the feedwater to the boiler. The displaced/saved extraction steam can therefore expand further in the steam turbine to generate power. The research and development of the SAPG technology started in the 1990s. This paper is trying to review and summarize the progress of research and development of the SAPG plant technology in the last almost 30 years, including the technical and economic advantages of SAPG over other solar thermal power generation technologies (e.g., solar alone power generation), various modeling techniques used to simulate SAPG performance, impacts of SAPG plant’s configuration, size of solar field and strategies to adjust mass flow rate of extraction steam on the plant performance, exergy analysis of SAPG plant and operation strategies to maximize plant’s economic returns, etc. In addition, the directions for future R&D about SAPG technology have been pointed/proposed in this paper.