The performance of the system strongly depends on the site chosen. The performance analysis in this study is performed for a site close to Seville (Spain). Time series for the ambient temperature and the direct normal irradiation (DNI) have been derived from satellite data. The yearly sum of the DNI for the site is 2012 kWh/m2. The distribution of the mean monthly DNI in W/m2is displayed in figure 3.

Figure 4 displays the distribution of the mean monthly ambient temperature. Since a dry cooling condenser is chosen for the power plant the ambient temperature affects the condenser temperature of the power plant and thus its efficiency. Accordingly the power block efficiency will decrease in summer due to the higher ambient temperature.

The parabolic troughs used for the power plant cannot use the complete DNI but only

the DNI multiplied by the cosine of the incident angle. Figure 5 displays the corrected DNI sorted according to the number of hours they occur. For the simulation it is assumed that the power plant is only operating at a corrected DNI higher than 250 W/m2. According to figure 5 this limit is exceeded for 2770 hours per year. Thus the useful solar energy is reduced to 1726 kWh/m2a compared to 2012 kWh/m2a. Plant operation for values lower than 250

W/m2 is not profitable due to thermal losses in the solar field and high parasitic losses in the whole plant.