干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Parabolic trough solar thermal power plants are a proven technology in the utility scale since mid of the eighties. Between 1984 and 1991 nine power plants with an overall capacity of 354 MW have been installed in the Mojave Desert in California. Since these power plants can be equipped with a thermal storage or a fossil back-up they offer a fully dispatchable electricity generation capacity. This technology will be a very interesting near term option for countries with high solar irradiation levels and small resources of fossil fuels like Jordan. This paper discusses the numerical simulation of parabolic trough solar thermal power plants under Jordanian climate for Ma' an site. An analysis of the daily power output, direct normal irradiation and the efficiency for the Ma' an site has been carried out. The results show that Ma'an site is preferable.