Technology and Economics of Smart Grids and Sustainable Energy (2022) 7:30

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40866-022-00154-x

ORIGINAL PAPER

Technical and Economic Study for Electricity Production

by Concentrated Solar Energy and Hydrogen Storage
Saif Serag1 · Adil Echchelh1

Received: 13 July 2021 / Accepted: 31 July 2022 / Published online: 13 August 2022
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022

Abstract
Renewable Energy Sources are still in continual progress to be used for electricity production, the most important of which
is Concentrated Solar Energy, which has played a prominent role during the past years for electricity production. However,
focusing on economic aspect remains important to ensure the implementation of these projects, as many countries focus
on necessary cost of investing projects and electricity cost resulting from these modern technologies. In this study, we will
present a survey and economic analysis of electricity production by concentrated solar energy in two technological systems:
Stirling Dish, and Power Tower, and use an advanced electricity storage system, which is hydrogen production and storage.
levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) will be calculated in order to know the Total Electrical Cost of producing and storing
electricity in this hybrid system as a function of Investment cost I­ t, Operation and maintenance cost (O&M), Interest price,
and amount of Energy Produced. This system shows the possibility of application to produce electricity at low prices in
terms of cost, as the cost of electricity produced from this hybrid system ranged between 0.112 and 0.172 $/kWh, which is a
competitive cost that ensures the possibility of application and investment in addition to electricity production in sustainable
and environmentally friendly methods.

Keywords LCOE · Renewable energy · Stirling Dish · Power Tower · Hydrogen

Introduction store that heat in tanks so as to allow energy to be gener-

As a result of the negative effects caused by fossil fuel
use, renewable energy sources use has been encouraged in
recent times widely, where pollutant gas emissions at these
sources are almost non-existent [1]. Among the renewable
sources that have received great attention in many countries
are (Solar Energy) such as PV, concentrated solar energy
sources like(Fresnel lens, Power Towers, and Sterling Dish),
which are the most promising renewable energy-based
electricity generation technologies to deal with the grow-
ing demand for consumption and sustainability of energy.
Concentrated solar sources are better than PV because of
provide dispatchable under different conditions, through
integration with thermal energy storage units. These sources
work to concentrate and collect solar radiation, harness ther-
mal energy to drive the thermodynamic movement cycle and
* Saif Serag
saifserag75@gmail.com
1
Laboratory of Electronics Treatment Information, Mechanic
and Energetic, Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra, Morocco
ated at little or no solar energy for a period of 24 h a day, or
to be used during peak period demand and high prices [2,
3]. (Concentrated Solar Energy) installed worldwide during
2018 is estimated at 5.5 GW, divided as follows: 2.3 GW in
Spain, 1.9 GW in USA, about 0.5 GW in Middle East, China
0.6 GW, and 0.2 GW in countries rest like Asia and Europe,
the growing demand for distributable renewable energy is
driving the interest in developing concentrated solar energy.
Therefore, many countries have developed a plan to deploy
more than 30 GW by 2030 [4]. Following up on the elec-
tricity prices generated through (Concentrated Solar, and
Thermal Storage) systems use, it was found that there was
a clear decrease in electricity generated prices from these
sources, where the LCOE was more than 0.36 $/kWh, but
now ranges between 0.09 and 0.17 $/kWh, thus the cost has
become highly encouraging to be invested to cover the com-
munities’ need of electric energy at the lowest costs [5–8].
Hydrogen is considered one of the best means used as an
energy store, in addition, it is considered an ideal renewable
energy generation source as it is a clean and environmen-
tally friendly source, especially when produced by water

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electrolysis, which is one of the main directions for sus-
tainable energy development, Because the production of
hydrogen by using of renewable energy sources, as well as
its use to produce electricity by means of fuel cells, com-
pletely guarantees that these sources are free from pollu-
tion, many countries are working to promote such sources
for supporting their development greatly because of their
benefit in reducing the proportion of gas emissions Toxic
in air [9, 10]. Hydrogen produced cost by water electrolysis
decreases with a decrease in electricity price used for analy-
sis, as was the cost of hydrogen kilogram reached 10 $/kg
in 2014, those costs decreased with 2019 until it reached
between 4 and 6 $/kg, this cost is expected to decrease to less
than 3 $/kg by 2030 depending on (Production and Invest-
ment) costs of hydrogen and the cost of electricity used for
analysis [10–12].
Since concentrating solar energy with hydrogen storage
is a budding technology in the world, the cost and value
are not well understood, so this research will focus on pre-
senting a study on the modern (for 2020) basic costs and
cost reduction percentage for those sources, and methods
for analyzing possible economic information for production
and generation of electricity Hybrid System of (Dish Stirling
- Hydrogen) and (Power Tower - Hydrogen), data analy-
sis will focus on calculating the investment, Capital costs,
amount of Energy Produced during a lifetime, and finding
the Levelized cost of electricity production (LCOE) in these
systems, Also, provide reasonable projections according to
a statistical study of electricity production prices for each
component of those sources depending on main influencing
parameters.
Method and Materials
Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE)
Levelized Cost of electricity can be calculated by using
Eq. (1), which is an equation widely used to derive the eco-
nomic cost of various power plants and is used to deter-
mine the minimum electricity sale required to recover the
capital costs and the costs of installation, operation, and
Fig. 1  Stirling Dish labour
mechanism
13
Technology and Economics of Smart Grids and Sustainable Energy (2022) 7:30
maintenance during the assumed lifetime of the plant’s pro-
duction of power [7, 2].
∑n It +Mt +Ft
t=1 (1+r)t
LCOE = ∑n Et (1)
t=1 (1+r)t
Where ­It is initial cost of investment and installation. ­It
represented by equipment costs and its installation, civil
engineering and risk insurance, ­Mt operating and mainte-
nance costs, ­Ft fuel costs for hybrid systems, t lifetime, r
discount percentage equal sum of inflation rate and interest,
and ­Et electricity produced during t.
Stirling Dish
Stirling dish converts solar energy into mechanical energy
by Stirling engine, then into electricity, with high efficiency
almost 30%, Its capital costs have decreased significantly
during the past years, as it cost was more than 35,000 $/
kW, but now it has a low value, close to 2000 $/kW. [13,
14]. This system consists of several parts, Reflector, which
is a solar parabolic dish to collect and concentrate sun rays
at one point, Absorber which consider a thermal receiver,
then Stirling engine, a Control system, and Electric genera-
tor, Fig. 1 [14–16].
Types and Shapes of Stirling Dishes vary according to
manufacturers and demand. The dish may be in a single mir-
ror form, or several adjacent mirrors to avoid wind loads.
Solar rays are collected by a parabolic dish with an effi-
ciency of more than 95% and focused on one point, which
is the focus of the parabola in which the receiver is installed,
which works with an efficiency of 65%, then this large con-
centrated heat lead to increases the gas pressure inside the
receiver, which drives Stirling engine to produce mechanical
energy, which converted by the electric generator into alter-
nating electricity with an efficiency of not more than 25%. It
should be noted that these systems must be installed in sunny
areas in all year seasons in order to ensure the maximum
production of electricity [17].
Mirror area is between 50 and 120 m ­ 2, while the area
required for system, in general, is between 50 and 150 m ­ 2
Technology and Economics of Smart Grids and Sustainable Energy (2022) 7:30
depending on project type, height is between 8 and 15 m,
system weight is 2000 to more than 8,000 kg, focal length is
4 to 12 m, and interception factor is more than 90%. As for
Stirling engine, it contains 2 or 4 cylinders and uses either
hydrogen or helium as the working fluid inside the cylinders,
as the rotations of these cylinders range from 800 to 2200
revolutions per minute so that output estimated is approxi-
mately 8 to 25 kw, annual efficiency is between 14 and 25%,
and annual energy ranges between 17 and 37 MWh. Produc-
tion values ​​vary according to the region and the amount of
direct normal insolation in the area so that the production
starts at 200 W/m2 and reach peak output at values ​​more
than 1000 W/m2 [14].
Electricity production costs by Stirling Dish System have
decreased from 2010 until now, by increasing the system’s
work efficiency, durability and reliability of manufacturing,
which works to reduce the cost of maintenance and increase
energy production amount to meet the costs involved in
investing these renewable systems. Competition between
companies still exists for Stirling dish technology develop-
ment and presenting it to the energy market at the lowest
costs for various uses such as heating, electricity production,
water desalination and others, as these systems are classi-
fied within sustainable, clean energies, and environmentally
friendly [14].
LCOE by these concentrated systems remained high
until 2014, ranging from 0.2 to 0.36 $/kWh, after which it
witnessed clear decreases up to 0.14 $/kWh for areas with
excellent solar radiation and it is expected that these costs
will drop to half in the next ten years [6].
Table 1 shows the details of direct and indirect costs of
installing a Stirling dish for 2020. Average investment costs
for a Stirling dish are about 2000 $/kW for 2020 [17].
Power Tower
Power Tower is one of the highly efficient solar concentrat-
ing systems for electricity production, which consists of a
tall tower centered in the center of many reflective mirrors
called heliostats, which number more than 500,000 flat mir-
rors and have the ability to follow solar rays path as shown in
Table 1  Direct and indirect cost for Stirling Dish installation 2020
Types Cost Reference
Direct Cost Collector 350 $/m2 [8, 18]
Receiver 250 $/kW
Stirling Engine 400 $/kW
Contingency 10%
Indirect Cost Civil Engineering 16 to 23% [7, 8]
Other Cost 3%
O&M 35 $/kW.y or 7%
Page 3 of 11 30
Fig. 2 which was applied Using (Solar Pilot) program. Sun’s
rays are received by these mirrors and reflected in a balanced
way towards the tower top, as it contains a chamber whose
temperature rises to a large degree that allows the evapora-
tion and rush of any fluids (water, air, carbon dioxide…) at
great speeds used to move the turbines needed to generate
electricity [19].
Figure 3 shows the five systems which the power tower is
installed, which are Collector system (Heliostats), receiving
system (power tower), Thermal storage is a thermal tank
used to exchange energy, Steam generator, and Electric
power generator [20].
In order to know and evaluate electricity production costs
from Power Tower, a detailed study must be given on direct
and indirect costs of constructing and installing station, and
total estimated energy that will be produced during in sta-
tion’s production lifetime. All previous studies indicated that
Heliostats cost is 200 $/m2 and is expected to drop to 120 $/
m2, Tower cost is 200 $/kW and is expected to drop to 170$/
kW, while Storage cost is expected to drop from 30 to 20 $/
kWh, Electric generator is considered the most expensive
as it reaches 1000 $/kW and is expected to drop to 800 $/
kW, Steam Generators Cost is 350 $/kW, expected to drop to
250 $/kW, and O & M costs are estimated at 50–65 $/kW per
year in 2020. Indirect costs represent approximately 25–27%
of direct cost, and the relative cost of investment, installation
and engineering costs are summarized in Civil, Operation,
Maintenance and Emergency for (2020) as shown in Table 2.
Hydrogen
Renewable energy sources are seasonal, intermittent sources,
and change most of time. Therefore, that energy must be
stored for use when needed, the best way to store energy is to
convert energy into hydrogen produced and stored for use to
generate electricity by fuel cells or as a feedstock for manu-
facturing such as ammonia production, oil refining and other
chemical uses [22]. Hydrogen is transportable and stored in
various states (gaseous, liquid, and solid). Fuel cells that
power on energetic hydrogen are the best solution to save
energy more than other types of batteries, as they contain a
higher energy density and do not decompose when extended
storage, and power output [10].
The process of hydrogen production by water electroly-
sis begins with the presence of DC current source, since
the main goal of hydrogen production is to reduce environ-
mental pollution resulting from carbon dioxide, renewable
energy sources use are preferable for water analysis by Pro-
ton Exchange Membrane (PEM), water is analyzed into oxy-
gen and hydrogen, then the hydrogen is stored for use when
need to produce electricity, as shown in Fig. 4. In order to
give an economics accurate analysis of hydrogen production,
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30 Page 4 of 11 Technology and Economics of Smart Grids and Sustainable Energy (2022) 7:30

Fig. 2  Method of heliostats arrange around Power Tower

Fig. 3  Systems of Power Tower

storage and use, each stage must be studied separately in to of hydrogen is between 45 and 50 kWh and about 10 L of
know the total cost of hydrogen. water. Table 3. shows the detailed costs of PEM.

Water Analysis Cost by (PEM) Recently, Proton Exchange

Membrane (PEM) cost has been decreasing clearly, where it
cost decreased in 2015 from 1500 to 1100 $/kW in 2020 with
a capacity of 50 MW and it is expected that this cost will
decrease to 800 $/kW in 2030 with a capacity of 100 MW.
It must be known that the energy needed to produce 1 kg
Hydrogen Storage Hydrogen storage is very important
to ensure its safe use when needed, storage methods vary
according to hydrogen state (solid, liquid, or gaseous). Stor-
age costs also vary according to its state, the energy used for

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Technology and Economics of Smart Grids and Sustainable Energy (2022) 7:30 Page 5 of 11 30

Table 2  Power tower installation cost Table 3  Detailed costs of PEM

Types Cost References Parameters Unite Reference

Direct Cost Heliostat Field 120–200 $/m2 [19–21] Investment Cost 700–1800 $/kW [10, 11, 22–24]
Tower 170–200 $/kW O&M 13.6–20 $/kW.y
Thermal Storage 20–30 $/kWh Lifetime 20 Year
electric Generator 800–1000 $/kW Contingency 10%I
Steam Generator 250–350 $/kW Total Cost ≈ 1410 $/kW
O&M 50–65 $/kW.y
Indirect Cost 25–27% Direct Cost
Table 4  Costs of storing hydrogen as a compressed gas
Time Description Capital Costs O&M Other Cost
storage, storage methods, and the time period required for
storage. To give a clear and accurate evaluation of hydrogen 1 Day Cylinders $/kg 0.21–0.6 0.1–0.5 0.1–0.2
storage methods needs to know the costs for each of those Pipes $/kg More 4.25 0.1-1 0.1–0.3
cases, in addition to operation, maintenance costs, and other 30 Day Cylinders $/kg 0.1-1 0.1–0.5 0.1–0.2
costs necessary to ensure the storage process. Pipes $/kg More 7 0.1-1 0.1–0.3
Reference [25] [26] [26]
Compressor Gas Storing hydrogen in a gaseous state is con-
sidered the easiest and least expensive than others, that cost
varies according to method used for storage (Cylinders or Underground Compressed Gas Storage Underground com-
Pipes) and period required for storage (1 day or 30 days), pressed hydrogen storage costs are less than 0.2 $/kg for
hydrogen can be stored at a cost between 0.21 and 0.6 $/kg short or long-term periods, while capital costs between 2 and
in cylinders and more than 4.25 $/kg in pipes during 1 day, 11 $/kg, this cost consider very low compared to the large
costs between $1 to 5 $/kg in cylinders and more than 7$/kg period for storage, as compressed hydrogen can be stored
in pipes during 30 days [25], while Operating and Mainte- for several months, this method is the most appropriate, best
nance costs range from 0.1 to 0.5 $/kg, and other costs 0.1 to and safest method for large quantities storage with short or
0.2 $/kg [26]. A clear decrease was observed in capital costs long periods [25, 26].
for storage, as it reached 0.2 $/kg for 30 days 2020, while
operation and maintenance costs, as well as other costs, Liquefied Hydrogen Storage Hydrogen can be liquefied to
remained without any noticeable change. Table 4. shows the have a density of 70 kg/m3, as it is compressed and cooled
different costs of storing hydrogen in gaseous state for two to lower degrees less than − 253 ℃, and it is distinguished
different periods 1 and 30 days. that the space that is occupied for storage is less than gase-
ous hydrogen, but it consumes large energy for liquefac-
tion and storage, so this method is expensive as it consumes
Fig. 4  Stages of hydrogen pro-
duction, storage and use

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30 Page 6 of 11 Technology and Economics of Smart Grids and Sustainable Energy (2022) 7:30

approximately 50 kWh for the liquefaction only. This value Table 5  Cost detail of fuel cell
decreases with the increase of the liquefied amount, reach- Parameters Cost Reference
ing 14 kWh when liquefying more than 10,000 kg, while the
storage cost reaches 3 $/kg [25, 26]. Capital Cost 1100–1400$/kW [10]
Temperature 70–80 0 C [25]
Solid Hydrogen Storage The storage method for hydrogen Efficacity 40–60% [25]
in the solid state is the most promising form of storage in O&M 3% [27]
the future, and storage is done in two ways, either by absorp- Other Cost 10% [26]
tion to form mineral hydrates and requires strong bonding lifetime 10 year [25]
and high release energy, or adsorption, where the hydrogen
is absorbed by porous materials or nanotubes, and here the
bonding is less and the energy needed to release hydrogen Result and Discussion
is also less than Absorption, but until 2020, this technology
is still very expensive and reaches more than 10 $/kg, in It is noticeable that the prices for installation and invest-
addition to the problems of hydrogen release, which made it ment of concentrated solar sources (2020) have become
difficult to reach the actual and economic application of this clearly competitive with other sources, through statisti-
technology [26], Fig. 5. shows Costs comparison between cal analysis of capital costs, operating and maintenance
different storage types of hydrogen. costs, and other costs associated with that for Stirling
Dish, Power Tower, and Hydrogen storage, it found that:

Fuel Cell
Fuel cells consist of two electrodes submerged in an elec-
trolyte solution. Electricity is produced by introducing
hydrogen to the positive electrode in oxygen presence,
which flows through an external circuit, in addition to
producing water and a temperature of almost 80 0 C. Fuel
cell costs vary from one company to another, ranging from
1150 to 8500 $/kW, and their efficiency is high from 40
to 60% [25], Table 5. shows the different parameters of
fuel cell cost, percentage of operation and maintenance,
and other costs compared to capital cost, as well as the
temperature, efficiency and lifetime of fuel cells.
10
9
Hydrogen storage cost $/kg
Stirling Dish
By following the details of direct and indirect costs shown
in Table 1. and calculating the applicable percentage for
projects in different companies, average investment costs
­(It) for a Stirling Dish for 2020 are 2000 $/kW, when cal-
culating other percentages as shown in Table 6. Total cost
will be 3120 $/kW for Stirling Dish, with applying Eq. 1,
the Levelized Cost of Electricity can be calculated, which
is 0.1, it is expected that this cost will decrease over the
next ten years by 20%.
Figure 6 shows LCOE for all parameters of Stirling
Dish projects. It is clear that the investment cost for 2020
will be between 0.042 and 0.077 $/kWh, while the installa-
tion cost is about 0.0095 to 0.018 $/kWh, civil engineering
between 0.01to 0.19 $/kWh, contingency 0.005 to 0.008
$/kWh, and operation and maintenance less than 0.005 $/
kW.

8
7
6
5 Table 6  Detail cost of Stirling Dish
4 Parameters Cost Unite
3
2 Investment It 2000 $/kW
1 Installation 20% ­It 400 $/kW
0 Civil Engineering 23% ­It 460 $/kW
Gas Underground Liquid Solid Contingency 10% ­It 200 $/kW
Storage Types O&M 3% ­It 60 $/kW
Total Cost 3120 $/kW
LCOE 0.1 $/kWh
Fig. 5  Costs comparison between different storage types of hydrogen

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Technology and Economics of Smart Grids and Sustainable Energy (2022) 7:30 Page 7 of 11 30

Power Tower
S ng Dish 0.070
0.09

0.08 0.060
Mean
0.07 Mean 0.050

0.06 0.040
0.05
0.030
0.04
0.020
0.03
0.010
0.02

0.01 0.000
Investment Installa on Civil Con ngency Opera on and
0 engineering maintenance
Investment Installa on Civil Con ngency Opera on and
engineering maintenance

Fig. 7  Detail of LCOE for Power Tower Project

Fig. 6  Detail of LCOE for Stirling Dish Project

Table 8  LCOE and Hydrogen Cost Detail when using Stirling Dish
Table 7  Detail cost of Power Tower and Power Tower

Parameters Cost Unite Parameters Cost Unit

Investment It 4000 $/kW LCOE Stirling Dish 0.08–0.125 $/kWh

Installation 20% ­It 800 $/kW Power Tower 0.07–0.1 $/kWh
Civil engineering 23% ­It 920 $/kW Hydrogen Storage 0.042–0.054 $/kWh
Contingency 6.5% ­It 260 $/kW Stirling Dish + Hydrogen 0.122–0.172 $/kWh
Storage
O&M 5% ­It 200 $/kW
Power Tower + Hydrogen 0.112–0.165 $/kWh
Total Cost 6180 $/kW
Storage
LCOE 0.09 $/kWh
Hydrogen Cost Stirling Dish + Hydrogen ≈ 5.28 $/kg
Storage
Power Tower + Hydrogen ≈ 4.81 $/kg
Power Tower Storage

Power towers are considered the best in investment cost, as

their value ranges between 0.04 and 0.063 $/kWh, and the
cost of both civil engineering and installation converges, so
that it is between 0.009 and 0.013 $/kWh, and the operating
and maintenance values reach 0.005 $/ kWh, and projections
of lower costs to 2030, as shown in the Fig. 7.
Table 7 show that the cost of electricity produced from
the power tower is low due to the high efficiency of the sys-
tem for producing electricity and capacity factor, which is
more than 40%.
Hydrogen
Hydrogen production cost mainly depends on the electricity
cost used in analysis process and the costs of other stages
such as analysis, storage, and conversion to electricity by
fuel cells. By use of concentrated solar energy sources, it
becomes clear that the cost per kilogram is 4.81 $/kg when
using Power Tower as a source for electrolysis in Hydro-
gen production process, and 5.28 $/kg when using a Stir-
ling Dish. Table 8 shows details of all information about
electrical sources costs for (Stirling Dish and Power Tower),
producing cost and storing hydrogen in addition to total
costs when using a hybrid system (Stirling Dish - Hydrogen)
and (Power Tower - Hydrogen), in the end, it will show the
costs of 1 kg of Hydrogen when using these two electricity
sources.
LCOE varies as different technologies used. For this, a
range of those costs must be given in order to give a suf-
ficient picture for the future. Figure 8 shows LCOE ranges
for each of systems studied in 2020 and gives forecasting’s
for those costs until 2030, which studies show that costs
decrease remain continues due to technological development
that gives lowest costs with highest efficiencies.
Parameters Effect Study on Electricity Production
by Hydrogen Storage
Since tools and devices costs used vary from one company to
another and from year to year, as well as changes in devices
efficiency and the duration of their default work, this means

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30 Page 8 of 11 Technology and Economics of Smart Grids and Sustainable Energy (2022) 7:30

Fig. 8  LCOE Range for Stirling

Dish, Power Tower, and Storage
by Hydrogen at (2020–2030)

differ according to renewable resources nature and techno-

0.15
logical development in addition to other additions, all com-
0.13
panies incur those expenses to achieve interest and returns in
0.11 the future. it noted that the Power Towers contain approxi-
0.09 mately 500,000 heliostats divided over an area of ​​approxi-
mately 10,000,000 m ­ 2, this large number of heliostats and
LCOE

0.07

0.05
0.03
0.01
-0.01
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
$/kW
Fig. 9  Effect of Capital Cost on (LCOE)
that we will not be able to obtain a specific and exclusive
value for Levelized cost of electricity from those sources, so
all these influence parameters must be studied.
LCOE values can change according to the different
parameters affecting the amount of energy produced, which
is what developers and researchers must focus on in order
to reduce the cost of energy produced, which is to reduce
the capital cost, increase the efficiency of electrical produc-
tion, improve the quality of tools to enable them to work for
longer periods of time and find methods that are more effi-
cient and less in size and space. In order to save as much of
those total costs as possible, which affect LCOE, the effect
of these transactions will be presented in detail as follows:
Capital and Investment Cost of Equipment Investment and
capital costs are among the factors affecting mainly the
energy and electricity cost, as LCOE increases linearly with
the increase in investment and capital costs Fig. 9 these costs
this large area increase capital expenditures, but with the
technological development, that number can be reduced by
producing advanced heliostats with a high capacity to con-
centrate Solar energy is better than its predecessors, thus
it will not need that large number of heliostats nor for that
large area, and this can reduce the large capital cost caused
by the large number of equipment and large areas. Likewise,
as in Stirling Dish, work can be done to reduce the cost of
collector, receiver, and Stirling engine in future. 2020 has
seen a clear decrease in the prices of Stirling Dishes and
Power Towers, Costs are expected to decrease by more than
25% by 2030.
Efficiency When studying the production costs of power sta-
tions and the performance of machines, one must always
focus on the efficiency of motors and generators, or the so-
called (Capacity Factor), which plays a fundamental role in
specifying the amount of energy produced by an engine or
factory, however, LCOE for Power Towers is less than Stir-
ling Dish because of the higher efficiency of Power Towers.
Also, the efficiency of hydrogen production, storage, and
the efficiency of producing electricity by fuel cells greatly
affect the cost of electricity produced. Figure 10 shows
LCOE change with the efficiency of electricity production
with stored hydrogen. clearly find that the price of electricity
production varies with the difference in efficiency.

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Technology and Economics of Smart Grids and Sustainable Energy (2022) 7:30 Page 9 of 11 30

0.500 1.200
Fuel Cell Fuel Cell
0.450 PEM PEM
1.000
0.400 Storage Storage
Electricity Source cost Electricity Source cost
0.350 0.800
0.300

LCOE
0.600
LCOE

0.250
0.200 0.400
0.150
0.200
0.100
0.050 0.000

7008

7884
876

1752

2628

3504

4380

5256

6132

8760
0.000
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Hours
Efficiency %

Fig. 12  Effect of Operation Time in the year on (LCOE)

Fig. 10  Effect of Efficiency on (LCOE)

0.800
Fuel Cell
Fuel Cell
0.700 PEM 0.6
PEM
0.600 Storage Storage
Electricity Source cost 0.5
0.500 Electricity cost
LCOE

0.400 0.4
0.300
LCOE

0.3
0.200
0.100 0.2

0.000
0.1
3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30
Years
0

30
0

10

15

20

25
Fig. 11  Effect of Lifetime Cost on (LCOE) Discount rate %

Fig. 13  Effect of Discount Rate on LCOE

Lifetime It is normal that the energy sources that have a
long lifetime have the lowest cost of electricity because the
total cost of the project is divided by the amount of energy
produced during its lifetime. Figure 11 shows the change in
LCOE for a different lifetime and it notes the large reduc-
tion in cost with different lifetimes, the problem that Energy
companies face is the search for reliability and assurance of
efficient operation for long periods, in turn, this leads to an
increase in maintenance during those long periods.
Operation Hours in Year Among the disadvantages of renew-
able energy sources is the instability and rapid change in
their capabilities, especially the solar energy, as the sun
appears on average for 12 h and disappears until the night
comes, this means that energy concentration devices and
equipment such as Stirling Dish, Heliostats, and Power
Tower do not work throughout year hours, if the sky is con-
sidered clear throughout Daylight hours, the working hours
reach 4480 h and this is impossible as there are seasons
in which the sun disappears due to clouds, rain, dust, and
other variables, these matters significantly affect LCOE.
This problem is solved by storing energy, thus most solar
energy equipment does not work for all periods per year,
which affects the cost of electricity, as shown in Fig. 12.
Discount Rate The discount rate shows a clear change in
LCOE as a 5% change in discount rate gives a change of
approximately 50% in LCOE [28], this indicates need to
focus on the discount rate carefully, Fig. 13.

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30 Page 10 of 11
Conclusion
This study provided a complete analysis of electricity pro-
duction costs from concentrated solar systems, which are
Stirling Dish and Power Tower, and integrated them with
a modern method of storage, which is hydrogen production
and storage, then LCOE was calculated for each source
separately, as well as for hybrid systems, and we obtained
the following details.
1. Electricity production cost calculated according to the
prices of 2020 shows that LCOE of Stirling Dish is
about 0.1 $/kWh, and Power Tower is 0.09 $/kWh.
2. In hybrid systems, electricity production costs are
between 0.112 and 0.142 $/kWh in (Stirling shower
- Hydrogen) system, and about 0.1-0.132 $/kWh in
(Power Tower - Hydrogen) system, while Hydrogen
production cost is 28.5 and 4.81 $/kg.
3. By following the decline in energy prices over the past
ten years and successive developments in technology,
LCOE is expected to decrease to more than 18% by 2030
in these systems.
4. Factors analysis affecting LCOE proved that costs
(investment, capital), efficiency, lifetime, operating time
per year, and discount rate, have a significant impact on
electricity production cost in these systems, developers
and researchers must take into account these parameters
in order to obtain a reduction lowest costs of the elec-
tricity produced and motive of many countries, institu-
tions and companies to energy production and invest it
by these clean and environmentally friendly sources.
Data Availability The datasets generated during and/or analysed during
the current study are available in the [International Renewable Energy
Agency (IRENA)] repository, (https://​www.​irena.​org/).
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