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In Algeria, the climate is transitional between maritime in the north and semi-arid to arid in the middle and the south. The Sahara which represents more than 80% of the total area of Algeria is characterized by the high level of solar energy potential. In the other hand, concentrating solar thermal technologies represent 70 % of the total power to be installed in the framework of the national plan of renewable energy and energy efficiency which consists of installing up 22000 MW of power generating capacity from renewable sources between 2011 and 2030 to achieve. The most important part of this plan is dedicated to the parabolic trough technology. In this purpose, this article presents an assessment of a plant of 100 MW for electricity generation based on parabolic trough technology. This plant will be located in four typical sites of Algerian climate conditions (Tamanrasset, Bechar, Ghardia and Alger). The NREL's SAM software (system Advisor Model) is used to evaluate the plant's energetic and economic performances such as monthly energy production, annual energy output and Levelized cost of energy (LCOE). (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.