In this work, a techno-economic analysis of concentrated photovoltaic/thermal collector (CPVT) driven desalination and cooling plant is presented. The system comprises of a CPVT collector, a humidification-dehumidification (HDH) desalination unit and vapour compression refrigeration (VCR) unit. The CPVT collector having 10 m2 aperture area and a triple junction PV panel placed at the receiver supplies required hot water to the HDH desalination system. Chilled water generated from 0.5 hp compressor operated VCR unit is supplied to the dehumidifier of HDH desalination. The process of cooling and dehumidification using chilled water result in increased desalination yield and resulting air is suitable for air conditioning purpose. The work is aimed to evaluate the annual performance of the trigeneration plant and to estimate the unit cost of fresh water and payback period. The annual performance of the plant is evaluated for the typical metrological year data for the location of Vellore, India. Results show that the annual desalination, electricity and cooling output are 4.2 m3/yr and 3.46 MWh/yr and 0.788 MWh/yr respectively. The daily average desalination and cooling output are 11.12 L/day and 2.47 kWh/day respectively. The annual electricity consumption of the solar cogeneration plant is 6570 kWh/yr. The estimated unit cost of fresh water is ?10/L. By considering the interest rate of 9 % and total life time of the plant as 20 years, the payback period is estimated to be 6.5 years. © 2019 IOP Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.