Ain Beni Mathar Integrated Thermo Solar Combined Cycle Power Plant


The Ain Beni Mathar Integrated Thermo Solar Combined Cycle Power Plant is an integrated solar combined cycle power generation plant in northeastern Morocco. It is located in the commune of Ain Bni Mathar within Jerada Province, in the Oriental Region.
Construction began in March 2008 and the facility was commissioned in 2011.

Description

The plant site, which has a total area of, is characterized by a very large solar field, covering about.
The total capacity of the plant is 472 MWe of which up to 20 MWe may be delivered from solar energy, and can generate an average annual energy production of about 3,538 GW·h. The plant uses natural gas as fuel. It is connected via a 12.6 km long pipe to the Maghreb-Europe pipeline.
With a total cost of 4.6 billion dirhams, , the project was funded by the African Development Bank, the :es:Instituto de Credito Oficial|Official Credit Institute of Spain and the Global Environment Facility through a grant of $43.2 million, with the balance being provided by :fr:Office national d'électricité|L'Office National de l'Électricité.

Specifications

The plant consists of two 150.28 Mwe Alstom GT13E gas turbines fueled by natural gas, a 172 Mwe Alstom DKYZ2-1N41B steam turbine, a collector surface solar parabolic trough field, a solar heat exchanger, and two heat recovery exchangers, one for each gas turbine. The recovery boiler recovers the gas turbine waste heat.
The solar energy collected at the parabolic troughs can increase the flow of steam produced in the recovery boilers. The steam produced in the two recovery boilers is expanded in the three body steam turbine.
The solar radiation can contribute to up to 20 Mwe of the power plant output.
It is understood that the solar field does not increase the total power, but simply lowers the specific consumption.
The energy produced is transferred to the interconnection of Oujda and Bourdim via three 225 kV lines.
Condenser cooling is via an air condenser, and a water consumption of 850,000 m3/year.
The Combined Cycle component has a 93% availability factor and the Solar Field has a 95% availability factor.
Specific consumption of the GT13E gas turbine is 10080 kJ/kW·h.
Solar field input temperature is, output temperature is.
One collector is 150 m long and 5.7 m wide.