Solar-coal Hybrid Thermal Power Generation in China

Coal is presently the largest source of electricity in China, with the increasing demand for electricity, the problems of environment pollution become more and more severe. In order to solve the problems, all options for power generation by new and renewable energies are enjoying growing attention in recent years. China has abundant solar energy resources and large wasteland areas, which makes China an ideal country for solar thermal power generation development. However, its present higher costs for China made it difficult to promote large-scale. Under this condition solar hybrid with coal thermal power generation becomes the best solution of the problem. In this paper, the feasibility of solar hybrid with coal thermal power generation in China was analyzed from the aspects of environment, policy, investment risk and economics.