Study of Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) for Innovative Coating Materials for Geothermal Plant Components

Abstract

The aggressive environment of medium to high temperature geothermal resources makes the geothermal plant components vulnerable to corrosion, erosion and scaling, which is a challenge in maintaining the integrity of the various plant components. To combat against aggressive geofluid for future geothermal project development, the Geo-Coat project proposes cost-effective anticorrosion, anti-scaling coating materials for low-cost carbon steel (CS) substrates as an alternative to the state of art (SOA) materials with the aim of providing improved component performances during the lifetime of the plants. In Geo-Coat five high entropy alloys (HEAs) deposited through High-Velocity Oxy-Fuel spray (HVOF), Laser Cladding (LC) and Electro-Spark Deposition (ESD) is being studied as coating materials. Determining the economic impacts of these Geo-Coat substrate materials, coating materials and the deposition processes is an essential step in designing a sustainable technology for geothermal components. Therefore, in this study, the economic impacts of the Geo-Coat technology adopted for geothermal components have been evaluated along with SOA materials utilising LCOE (levelized cost of energy) methodology. This paper briefly presents the results of the LCOE study and suggest the best combination of coating material and its deposition technique, which can be used for identifying and promoting sustainable coatings for geothermal plant components.