Thermo-economic and sustainability assessment of two solar organic Rankine cycles in the United States

•Thermo-economic, thermo-sustainability of two solar ORC configurations are evaluated.•The environmental impact using the LCA method is conducted.•Thermal tank volume has the greatest influence on environmental impact.•The collector area is the equipment that most impacts the economic viability of the system. The use of renewable energy sources such as solar is being considered as a viable option to produce thermal heat for electric power generation. In this manuscript, a comparative analysis of the energy, exergy, thermo-economic, thermo-sustainability, and environmental performance of two proposed configurations: Organic Rankine Cycle (Solar-SORC), and Regenerative Organic Rankine Cycle (Solar-RORC) powered through flat-plate solar collector (FPSC) as an energy source was conducted. Average solar radiation values were taken from the SolarAnywhere database for six regions of the United States (Arizona, Delaware, Nevada, California, New Jersey, and Massachusetts). Both configurations were analyzed under particular operating conditions, and the hourly performance of the study variables was studied under the effect of collector area and tank volume with the configuration and region that showed the best performance. The results revealed that the implementation of the Solar-RORC under the proposed operating conditions is not favorable. Additionally, it was found that the Arizona region had the best performance in terms of energy (WNet=19.37kW;ηI=68.82%), exergy (Ėin=169.19kW; ηI=11.45%); and economics parameters: payback period (PBP = 24.68 year), levelized cost of energy (LCE = 0.822 USD/kWh), and specific investment cost (SIC = 6313.8 USD/kWh).