Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 14 (2019) 100458

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Case Studies in Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/csite

Thermal performance analysis of a concentrated solar power

T
system (CSP) integrated with natural gas combined cycle (NGCC)
power plant
Ashraf E. Elmohlawya,b,∗, Valery F. Ochkova,c, Boris I. Kazandzhana
a
Department of Theoretical Basics of Heat Engineering, National Research University (Moscow Power Engineering Institute), Moscow, Russia
b
Mechanical Power Engineering Departement, Shoubra Faculty of Engineering, Benha Univerisity, Cairo, Egypt
c
Joint Institute for High Temperatures of Russian Academy of Sciences (JIHT), Moscow, Russia

A R T IC LE I N F O ABS TRA CT

Keywords:
Concentrated solar power integrated solar
combined cycle solar energy
Solar thermal energy performance
In this study, a concentrated solar thermal power plant (CSP) with parabolic trough collectors
integrated into a reference triple-pressure NGCC power plant as an Integrated Solar Combined
Cycle (ISCC). The aim is to study and assessment the overall performance of different hybrid
schemes of ISCC plants. Thus, A detailed thermodynamic model of the proposed ISCC plants has
been developed to investigate the thermodynamic impact of solar heat rate injected in the high
and intermediate pressure sections (HP, IP) of the NGCC plant at different seasons of the year.
The cycles have been characterized and simulated under southern Egypt climate. An increase in
the NGCC output power of 52.315 MWe with peak net thermal efficiency of 64.86% and solar to
electric conservation efficiency of 46.95% are obtained from the integration process in the HP
section. The increase in power output reaches a limit of 43.38 MWe with a net efficiency of
63.82% and solar to electric efficiency of 38.85% for integration in the IP section. The results of
the analysis have been indicated that the higher the solar energy injected the higher is the solar
electricity production and the higher is the overall thermal efficiency.

1. Introduction

The use of fossil fuels is largely responsible for increasing pollution and resulting climate change and if continue to be depleted at
the present rate, they will be exhausted soon. Thus, renewable energy sources, particularly solar energy can help countries meet their
sustainable development goals through provision of access to clean, secure and affordable energy. Solar energy is clean, en-
vironmentally friendly and freely available over the planet earth, as well as it can be used for producing thermal and electrical
energy. Recently years, there has been rapid development in solar thermal electricity technologies and photovoltaic (PV) materials.
This development brought cost-effectiveness to solar devices [1].
Solar thermal power plants (STP), also known as concentrated solar power (CSP) are one of the main renewable energy alternative
technologies for the production of heat or electricity generation using mirrors that captures and concentrates the solar energy to heat
a liquid, solid or gas at temperatures between 400 and 1000 °C for producing of steam required to drive a heat engine for electricity
generation, rather than using fossil fuels or nuclear reactions [2]. Unlike photovoltaic installations, STP does not appear to be a

∗
Corresponding author. Department of theoretical basics of heat engineering, National Research University (Moscow Power Engineering
Institute), Moscow, Russia.
E-mail address: ashrafelsayed71288@gmail.com (A.E. Elmohlawy).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csite.2019.100458
Received 16 February 2019; Received in revised form 2 April 2019; Accepted 28 April 2019
Available online 04 May 2019
2214-157X/ © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY/4.0/).
A.E. Elmohlawy, et al. Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 14 (2019) 100458

Nomenclature RH Reheat stage

D Deaerator
CSP Concentrated solar power SFP Solar field pump
STP Solar thermal power plants CRP Condensate recirculation pump
NGCC Natural gas combined cycle G Generator
ISCC Integrated solar combined cycle GHC Gas preheater-condensate
PTCs Parabolic trough collector system FC Fuel compressor
HTF Heat transfer fluid D Drum
SSG Solar steam generator CC Combustion chamber
GT Gas turbine Qsolar Solar thermal heat input
ST Steam turbine Qabsorbed Total solar energy absorbed by PTC
HRSG heat recovery steam generator Qloss Heat losses
HPT High-pressure turbine stage mf Fuel mass flow rate
IPT Intermediate-pressure stage SRf fossil fuel saving ratio
LPT low-pressure turbine stage Nsolar Solar thermal electricity
E Economizer NNGCC The net power output and of the of NGCC
SH Superheater NISCC The net power output and of the of ISCC
EV Evaporator ηNGCC the thermal efficiency of NGCC
DNI Direct Normal Irradiance ηISCC the thermal efficiency of ISCC

logical choice in terms of distributed generation, but at the level of a large-scale system. In particular, they can be integrated with
thermal storage or in a hybrid process, providing power with fixed capacity and can be customized. This allows STP to fill the gaps in
intermittent resources of CO2-free energy, like wind energy. Solar thermal electricity can meet the maximum and minimum demand
level together.
CSP plants are suitable for areas exposed to large amounts of solar radiation, such as southern Europe, North Africa, the Middle
East, South Africa, some parts of India, China, the southern United States, and Australia. Today, STP plants range from a few
megawatts to more than 400 MW but can be increased.
Currently, four CSP technologies are considered: linear Fresnel reflector system (LF), parabolic trough collector system (PTC),
power tower or central receiver system (CRS), and parabolic dish/engine system (DE). The forms of mirrors, solar tracking methods,
and energy saving methods vary, but all follow the same principle: stimulating a heat engine often a steam turbine to generate
electricity. The most advanced and commercially widely proven is the PTC plants when compared with all other types of CSP plants
[3]. They have the ability to concentrate the solar radiation with a concentration ratio ranges from 70 to 80 suns and operating
temperature in the range of 290–550 °C [4].
Several decades ago, NGCC power plants are the most efficient thermal-to mechanical energy conversion systems. They are only
power plants in the world that can release electricity to consumers with high thermal efficiency up to 55–60% when operating in
condensation mode. Therefore, they have been commercially installed at high power rate levels (several hundreds of MW) and widely
used [5].
The integration of solar thermal technologies such as CSP technology with the NGCC power plants is a novel power generation
plants known as integrated solar combined cycles (ISCC). ISCC may become an interesting choice for power generation because they
are exhibit several advantages, including (1) higher conservation efficiency of solar energy to electric energy; (2) hybridization can
provide an efficient reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions as compared to NGCC power plants; (3) integration ar-
rangements has lower investment costs when compared to solar only and conventional power plants. A large number of ISCC power
plants now are in operation all around the world (North Africa, Iran, Italy, Spain, and the USA), several projects are planned and
under construction (North Africa, Mexico, China, and the USA) as reviewed in Ref. [6]. The majority of these plants based on PTC
technology.
In recent years, a number of studies have been thermodynamically analyzed the ISCC plants for identification the integration
points and limits of solar energy injected into existing NGCC power plants to maximize cycles performance. Therefore, the objective
of this study is the comparison in terms of daily, yearly electricity production and solar to electric conservation efficiency of two
different hybrid schemes of ISCC using PTC solar field under design point and off-design operations. A detailed new thermodynamic
model of the two ISCC plants has been built in the Mathcad environment to investigate the thermodynamic impact of solar heat
integration into a triple-pressure NGCC plant at higher and intermediate pressure sections. The model allows the designers to change
the input data according to the different design and operating conditions. In this study, both two ISCC plants are characterized and
simulated in location: Aswan, Egypt.

2. ISCC system configuration and operation

The configuration of ISCC basically consists of a PTC solar field coupled to the bottoming steam cycle of a NGCC power plant. Two
different operation strategies for PTCs in ISCC plants are considered: direct steam generation technology when the working fluid runs
in the absorber pipes of PTC solar field is water/steam in which the feed water is heated and then transferred directly to the steam
cycle. Another scheme consists of heat transfer fluid (HTF) in which synthetic thermal oil is used to transfer heat. Saturated/

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A.E. Elmohlawy, et al. Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 14 (2019) 100458

Superheated steam at high pressure through a heat exchanger can be produced by the hot synthetic thermal oil passing through a heat
exchanger and fed into a steam turbine for electricity generation. Most currently parabolic trough thermal plants use HTF technology
[7,8], which is assumed in our present study.
The flowsheets of the considered configurations of ISCC plants are given in Figs. 1 and 2. The system is composed of a triple-
pressure NGCC coupled with a PTC solar field and a solar steam generator (SSG) modeled in the Mathcad® environment. The NGCC
plant is composed by a topping gas turbine unit (GT) type M701F4 (Mitsubishi heavy industry) and a bottoming steam Rankine cycle.
The bottoming steam cycle consists of a steam turbine (ST) unit divided into three stages: the high-pressure turbine stage (HPT), the
intermediate-pressure stage (IPT) and the low-pressure turbine stage (LPT). The steam turbine connected to a triple-pressure heat
recovery steam generator (HRSG) with one reheat at the intermediate pressure stage. The output power of the NGCC is 503 MWe with
a net thermal efficiency of 58.75% at nominal conditions. All technical and design parameters for the NGCC and HRSG of the steam
cycle shown in Table 1.
The working principle of the ISCC plant is derived from the NGCC power plant, where the exhaust gases with high temperature
from the gas turbine pass through the HRSG to generate superheated/saturated steam that used to drive the steam turbine. The solar
energy collected by the solar field is used to generate an additional amount of steam through the SSG to supplement the steam being
generated in the HRSG. The steam generated in SSG and fed into the HRSG of the NGCC plant allowing for two different integration
strategies modes: power boosting and fuel saving mode. The former is considered when the additional solar steam increasing the
NGCC power output while maintaining constant fuel input, the later when solar steam is used to reducing natural gas consumption
while keeping power output constant [9].
In the present study power boosting mode is considered for two cases of integration between PTC solar field and NGCC power
plant at IP stage (ISCC–I, Fig. 1) and HP stage (ISSC-II, Fig. 2). During periods of solar activity, apart the feed water from the HRSG is
sent to SSG, in which water is heated and transferred into saturated/superheated steam. The resulting steam is returned to HRSG,
where it overheats to the parameters required for supply to the steam turbine cycle, see Figs. 1 and 2 [10,11]. These configuration
circuits provide an increase in the flow rate of the generated steam, and, as a consequence, the increase in power realized in the NGCC
power plant. During periods of relatively low solar activity due to cloudiness and at night, the ISCC unit operates as a conventional
combined-cycle plant.
According to the flow diagram of ISCC-I shown in Fig. 1, the PTC solar field heats thermal oil “TherminolVP-1” to a temperature
limited to a level of about 400 °C, which is then sent through a series of shell-and-tube heat exchangers (SSG). The SSG receives part
of the preheated feed water (steam) from the intermediate pressure economizer (IPE) in the HRSG and returns superheated steam at
378 °C, which is mixed with the IP steam coming out of the IP superheater (IPSH) circuit. The mixture is reheated to the final
conditions of the IP steam turbine to approximately 540 °C in the reheater. The flow diagram of ISCC-II shown in Fig. 2 represents the
integration of solar steam in the HP circuit of HRSG, in this case a fraction of the generated steam in the HP economizer I (HPE_I) is
sent to SSG for superheating to approximately 378 °C outside the HRSG, while the maintaining part is evaporated in the HRSG. The
superheated steam from SSG returns back to the HRSG, where it is mixed with HP steam coming out of the HP evaporator circuit. The
mixture of two streams is then farther superheated in the HP superheater to approximately 560 °C before entering the HP turbine.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of ISCC-I.

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Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of ISCC-II.

Table 1
Technical data of the NGCC and solar field at nominal conditions.
Ambient conditions Temperature (oC) 15 Isentropic efficiency (%) 90

pressure (bar) 1,013 Pump efficiency (%) 82

Gas turbine cycle Inlet temperature (oC) 1300 Mechanical efficiency of GT (%) 99.8
Outlet temperature (oC) 650 Power output (MW) 182
Air mass flow rate (kg/s) 735 Efficiency (%) 38.4
Fuel mass flow rate (kg/s) 17,157 HRSG Feed water pressure (bar) 1.2
Air pressure ratio 16 Feed water temperature (oC) 105
Natural gas lower heating value (MJ/kg) 50.056 Solar field PTC system (LS-3)
Compressor isentropic efficiency (%) 88.2 Location Aswan/Egypt
Turbine isentropic efficiency (%) 88.5 Climate and climatic zone hot, desert
Combustion chamber efficiency (%) 99.7 Latitude location (deg.) 24
Mechanical efficiency of GT (%) 99.9 Altitude (m) 30
GT generator efficiency (%) 99.9 Solar field area (m2) 164229
Power output (MW) 320 Soar steam HTF inlet temperature (oC) 291
Generator (SSG)
Efficiency (%) 37.47 HTF outlet temperature (oC) 393
Steam turbine cycle HPT steam inlet pressure (bar) 121 Steam inlet temperature (oC) 245
HPT steam inlet temperature (oC) 560 Steam outlet temperature (oC) 378
IPT steam inlet pressure (bar) 30.8 Thermal efficiency 98%
IPT steam inlet temperature (oC) 540 NGCC Gross output power (MW) 503
LPT steam inlet pressure (bar) 1.1 Efficiency (%) 58.8
LPT steam inlet temperature (oC) 154

3. Sit selection and solar radiation estimation

Egypt enjoys favorable solar radiation intensity. It has between 2900 and 3200 h of sunshine annually with annual Direct Normal
Irradiance (DNI) of 1970–3200 kWh/m2 from the north to the south of Egypt, see Fig. 3. An average sunshine duration of 12 h was
observed by NASA Surface Meteorology and Solar Energy in Egypt all over the year with average daily maximum temperature ranges
from 18 °C to 38 °C and average daily minimum temperature ranges from 9 °C to 22 °C. due to the available solar resource in the
country with the number of sunny days per year, the longer sunshine duration and the high solar radiation intensity, Egypt has a huge
potential of solar energy that Makes it one of the most appropriate regions for the design of solar energy conversion system both for
electricity generation and thermal heating applications.
In several previous research, the researchers have been used the DNI for determining the performance and the nature of the PTC
system. Therefore, a Mathcad Internet mathematical model was developed to estimate the direct component of solar irradiation and
the amount of solar energy collected by PTCs based on the selected site and available climate data (see Appendix A) [12]. The initial

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A.E. Elmohlawy, et al. Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 14 (2019) 100458

Fig. 3. Direct normal irradiance (DNI) over Egypt (https://solargis.com).

input data to the solar field model are the location (latitude and longitude); time (day of the year, hour); geometric (dimensions of the
solar field) and optic characteristics (coefficients of the absorption and the transmission of collector components). The geometrical
and optical characteristics of PTCs shown in Table 2.

4. ISCC simulation and discussion of the results

Two thermodynamic models of the ISCC plants have been developed in detail in Mathcad environment based on the

Table 2
Geometrical and optical parameters for PTCs.
Solar collector characteristics

Parameters Symbol Value Units

Collector aperture width Wa 5.76 m

Collector length L 99 m
Collector focal length f 1.71 m
Concentration factor Cr 80 -
Aperture Area Aa 545 m2
Collector reflectance ρc 0.9 -
Receiver absorbance αr 0.88 -
Intercept factor γ 1 -
Number of collectors in each row M 6 -
Number of lines N 48 -

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thermodynamic laws, relation, and energy balance. The models include solar radiation, solar field modeling, and modeling of the
power conversion cycles. All cycle's calculations are designed using Mathcad Internet and available online in Refs. [13,14]. The
models are validated with experimental and numerical results obtained from Refs. [8–11].
Models start with analysis and determining the performance of the solar field which has the main effect on the ISCC performance.
In this model, the solar field works in variable flow strategy, therefore the inlet and outlet temperature of HTF are set constant at
291 °C and 393 °C respectively.
The variation of solar energy absorbed by solar field and the HTF mass flow rate determined by using the model in three selected
days, 22nd June, 23rd March, and 21st December on hourly basis shown in Fig. 4. From the figure, we can conclude that the solar
energy collected by the solar field might reach up to 110.8 MW in summer. This value can be lower than 32 MW in winter. This due to
the higher the solar radiation results in an increase in the thermal energy gain by the solar field in summer compared to lower solar
radiation in winter. The solar energy gained can be reached to more than 85 MW in spring and autumn. Also, it is obvious that the
higher solar energy the higher is the HTF mass flow rate. Where it might reach to 444 kg/s on 22nd June and 134.5 kg/s on 21st
December.
Fig. 5 shows the effect of the solar heat input to SSG on the steam mass flow rate generated in both cycles. It is clear that the flow
rate of solar steam generated gradually increases in the HRSG with increasing the solar thermal heat input which leads to a decrease
in the exhaust stack temperature and hence increasing the HRSG efficiency. For low solar heat integration, the steam flow rate
generated is relatively low for both cycles (ms = 5 kg/s at Qsolar = 10 MW). At Qsolar = 100 MW the mass of steam generated reaches
to 53 kg/s in ISCC-II compared to 46.57 kg/s in ISCC-I this due to the difference in the temperature of steam input to SSG.
The proposed ISCC power plants in this study are working in power boosting mode, this means the higher the solar energy input
the higher the electricity production by the power plant. The reason behind that was mentioned above, when the solar heat input
increases, the steam mass flow in the HRSG also increases, which will lead to the generation of more steam in Rankine steam
bottoming cycle up to 55 kg/s and consequently more power output will be produced by ISCC plant [15]. The overall performance of
the two ISCC during a year has been analyzed, the total power output produced at the three selected days shown in Fig. 6. The output
power varies during a day with solar radiation intensity, it can reach to the peak value of 546.43 MWe with an increase of 43.38 MWe
from NGCC for ISCC-I and 555.36 MWe for ISCC-II with an increase of 52.315 MWe in summer. The difference is due to the amount of
solar steam entered to the HRSG. Minimum values of 515.8 MWe and 517.6 MWe for both cycles are observed during the low
radiation periods (winter).
Solar thermal electricity (Nsolar) represent the power produced by solar energy injected to the cycle and equal to the difference
between the power output of steam bottoming cycle in case of NGCC and in ISCC power plant [16]. Fig. 7 shows the impact of the
amount of solar heat injected to the HRSG on the solar thermal electricity produced. In fact, solar thermal electricity is largely
depending on the amount of solar thermal input. At Qsolar = 0 MW the two ISCC plants are working as a conventional NGCC thus, the
solar power output is Nsolar = 0 MWe. When the solar energy increases the solar power increases (Nsolar), it could reach to 40 MWe in
ISCC-I and 47.3 MWe in ISCC-II at Qsolar = 100 MW.
Similarly, the effect of solar energy injected on the net thermal efficiency of the two ISCC plants shown in Fig. 8. It is obvious that
the overall plant efficiency is a strong function of the solar heat input. It can reach the limit of 65% in case of high-pressure
integration (ISCC-II) in summer days, this limit decrees to 60.5% in winter days. For IP integration process represented in ISCC-I, the
overall efficiency can reach a maximum of 63.8%. From the above, we can deduce that the increase in the power output and thermal
efficiency of the plant for the integration in HP section (ISCC-II) is higher than that one in IP section (ISCC–I) at high solar heat input,
but the two cycles give approximately the results at relatively low solar heat input.

Fig. 4. Variations of HTF mass flow rate and solar heat collected on typical three days of a year.

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Fig. 5. Variations of steam mass flow rate versus changes in solar heat input for two cycles.

Fig. 6. Variations of power electric output of two cycles on three typical days of a year in hourly basis.

4.1. SCC systems annual performance results

Here, in order to obtain a complete overview and assess the ISCC system's real benefits, a simulation of the annual performance of
the proposed ISCC plants are carried out and shown in Table 3. Since the cycles operate on power boosting mode, the gas turbine
works all the time at full load and thus, the annual fuel consumption is constant. The most important keys of annual performance
assessment are: annual solar thermal share (defined as the ratio of annual solar electricity production (Nsolar) to the total ISCC system
net power output, (NISCC)), annual solar thermal into electrical efficiency (represent the ratio of Nsolar and the net electricity gen-
eration by ISCC plant) [16] and the annual overall thermal efficiency.

5. Conclusion

This study proposes and compares the performance of two configurations of ISCC power plants using PTC solar field technology
with a reference conventional triple-pressure NGCC power plant. In Both configurations, the solar field generates a part of the steam
of the high-pressure level (ISCC-II) and intermediate-pressure level (ISCC–I) of the heat recovery steam generator in parallel to the
steam generated in the corresponding evaporators. Thus, two thermodynamic simulation models were developed in Mathcad en-
vironment to simulate the components of the proposed ISCC plants. Both models are used to analyze and evaluate the thermodynamic
performance of the cycles at any operating condition. The effect of solar heat rate input on the main parameters of the systems was
investigated such as the mass flow rate of HTF in the solar field, the mass of generated steam in the solar steam generator (SSG), the

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A.E. Elmohlawy, et al. Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 14 (2019) 100458

Fig. 7. The effect of solar heat input on the solar power output for two cycles.

Fig. 8. Variations of ISCC efficiency on two typical days of a year.

Table 3
Annual performance simulation results for two cycles.
Parameters ISCC-I ISCC-II

Annual solar thermal energy input (GW h) 226.116 226.116

Annual solar electricity production (GW h) 89.195 104.743
Annual net electricity production (GW h) 3797.82 3812.55
Annual solar thermal share (%) 6.03 7.16
Annual solar to electricity efficiency (%) 39.85 44.43
Annual fossil fuel saving ratio (%) 9.6 11.28
Annual reduction in CO2 (ton/yr.) 62885 73586.42
Annual overall thermal efficiency (%) 61.75 62.95

net output power and the net thermal efficiency of ISCC. The comparisons between the two plants are made also in terms of annual
electrical energy production and overall thermal efficiency. The simulations for the two ISCC system show that:

(1) The integration process into the HP stage (ISCC-II) provides more generation of steam flow rate in HRSG than the integration into

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the IP stage (ISCC–I), hence more net electrical power out for ISCC-II than ISCC-I.
(2) For ISCC-II, the net power output can be reached as high as 555.36 MWe in summer compared to 546.43 MWe for ISCC-I, which is
higher than that in the reference NGCC system by about 52.315, 43.38 MWe respectively. Also, the overall efficiency increased
from 58.75% to 65% for both cycles. The values decrease in winter days due to less solar radiation available.
(3) An annual reduction of CO2 of 73586.42 (ton/yr.) could be achieved by ISCC-II with annual fossil fuel saving ratio (SRf) of
11.28% and 62885 (ton/yr.) of CO2 reduced by ISCC-I with annual SRf = 9.6%.

The study is limited for using PTCs solar filed with NGCC power plant, therefore using other types of CSP technologies with NGCC,
comparing between them and using thermal storage systems are suggested improvements and future works in this line of research.

Appendix A

To estimate the direct component of solar irradiation (DNI) and the amount of solar energy collected by PTCs based on the
selected site and available climate data. The following equations are used:
DNI in (W/m2) can be calculated by defining extraterrestrial radiation (Iso) as [12]:
360
Iso = Isc. ⎛1 + 0.033 cos n⎞
⎝ 365 ⎠ (1)
2
Where Isc is the solar constant (Isc = 1367 w/m ). Thus, DNI is given by Ref. [15]:
DNI = Iso τb cos θz (2)
where τb is the atmospheric transmittance and θz is a zenith angle (deg.)
The amount of solar energy collected by the PTC solar field (Qsolar) is calculated as follows:
Qsolar = Qabsorbed + Qloss (3)
where Qabsorbed is the total solar energy absorbed by the PTC solar field (W/m ) and Qloss, is the heat loss.
2

Qabsorbed can be calculated by Ref. [12]:

Qabsorbed = DNI ⋅K (θ)⋅ηop⋅Fe⋅cos θ⋅ηrowshading ⋅ηendloss (4)
where the K(θ) is incident angle modifier, ηop is the collector optical efficiency, Fe is the mirror cleanliness, θ is the incidence angle,
ηrow shading is row shadowing factor and ηend loss is the end losses factor.
The incident angle modifier is given by the following relation [12]:
K (θ) = 1 − 2. 23073 × 10−4θ − 1. 1 × 10−4θ 2 + 3. 18596 × 10−5θ 3 + 4. 85509 × 10−8θ 4 (5)
The collector optical efficiency is calculated according to Ref. [12] by the following relation:

cos θ = cos θz 2 + (cos2 δ sin2 ω) (6)

where ρc is the collector reflectance, αr is the receiver absorbance, τr is the transmissivity based on reflection-refraction of beam
radiation, and γ is the intercept factor.
The incidence angle can be determined from Ref. [17]:

cos θ = cos θz2 + (cos2 δ sin2 ω) (7)

where δ is the declination angle and ω is hour angle.
Shadowing factor is given by flowing equation [12]:
Ls cos θz
ηrowsdading =
Wa cos θ (8)
where Ls is the distance between two parallel collectors (m). Wa is the collector aperture width.
ηend loss is calculated based on [18]:

W2 f
ηrowshading = 1 − ⎛⎜1 + a 2 ⎞⎟ ⎛ ⎞ tan θ
⎝ 48f ⎠ ⎠⎝ L (9)
where f is the collector focal length (m).
The heat losses from the PTC solar field includes heat losses from PT collector (Qloss, PTC) and from pipes (Qloss, pipe) can be
determined from Ref. [12]:
Qloss = Qloss, PTC + Qloss, pipe (10)
Qloss, PTC and Qloss, pipe are calculated according to Ref. [12] and expressed by the following correlation equations:
Qloss, PTC = Ar UL (Tr − Ta) (11)

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Qloss, pipe = 1.693⋅10−2⋅ΔT − 1.683⋅10−4⋅ΔT 2 + 6.78⋅10−7⋅ΔT 3 (12)

Where UL is the collector thermal loss coefficient, Ar is the total PTC receiver area, Tr is the receiver (absorber) pipe temperature
and ΔT (°C) is the temperature difference between the HTF and the ambient air temperature (Ta).

Appendix B

The net power output and the thermal efficiency of the NGCC power plant can be calculated by the following equations:
NNGCC = NGT + NST (13)
NNGCC
ηNGCC =
mf ⋅LHV (14)
where NGT is the net power output of the gas turbine, NST is the net power output of the steam turbine and mf is the fuel mass flow
rate.
For ISCC modeling, the net power output can be given as [16]:
NISCC = NNGCC + NSolar (15)
The thermal efficiency of the NGCC power plant is given by:
NISCC
ηISCC =
mf ⋅LHV + Qsolar (16)

Appendix C. Supplementary data

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csite.2019.100458.

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