Abstract
This paper performs technical, economic and environmental feasibility analyses of two different solar cogeneration plants, consisting of a solar system (a parabolic trough collector field coupled with thermal energy storage), an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC), and mechanical chillers, that should cover the electrical and cooling demands of a commercial center located in Zaragoza (Spain). System A is hybridized with an auxiliary biomass boiler that complements the solar system’s thermal production, providing a constant heat supply to the ORC, which operates at full load during the operating hours of the solar system. In contrast, system B is not hybridized with biomass, so the ORC is fully driven by the solar system, operating at partial load according to the solar resource availability. Both systems are connected to the electrical grid, allowing electricity purchases and sales when needed. The design procedure involves the sizing of the equipment as well as the modelling of the hourly behavior of each system throughout the year. The physical analysis is complemented by an economic assessment, which considers investment and variable costs, as well as an estimate of the significant environmental benefits of the proposed plants. The solar plants are compared to a conventional system in which all the electrical consumption is covered with electricity purchased from the grid. The costs of the electricity produced by systems A and B are estimated at 0.2030 EUR/kWh and 0.1458 EUR/kWh, which are about 49% and 7% higher than the electricity purchase price in Spain (0.1363 EUR/kWh). These results indicate that while none of the solar plants are presently competitive with the conventional system, system B (without biomass hybridization) is actually closer to economic feasibility in the short and medium term than system A (with biomass hybridization).
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic puts the climate crisis into perspective as governments around the world rapidly act to safeguard the health, safety, and wellbeing of their citizens in what represents one of the greatest challenges to face society in generations
The cost of the electricity produced by the solar system hybridized with a biomass boiler has been estimated by dividing the sum of the annual investment cost of the solar field, thermal energy storage (TES), biomass boiler, and Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC), plus the annual energy cost of the biomass pellets (519,803 EUR/year), by the annual electricity produced in the ORC (2560 MWhe /year), obtaining the value of 0.2030 EUR/kWh, which is about 1.5 times greater than the cost of the electricity purchased from the grid (0.1363 EUR/kWh)
Cogeneration systems, producing producing cooling only, and to designed to cover theenergy annualdemands energy demands of a commercial power and power coolingand only, and designed cover the annual of a commercial center center located in Zaragoza (Spain), has been proven
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic puts the climate crisis into perspective as governments around the world rapidly act to safeguard the health, safety, and wellbeing of their citizens in what represents one of the greatest challenges to face society in generations. Most studies propose cogeneration (power and heat) or trigeneration (power, heat, and cooling) systems, but few focus on the combined production of power and cooling only, with very low or no heat demand, which is a common situation in some kinds of buildings, such as commercial centers, depending, among other factors, on their geographical location In this direction, the present paper investigates the technical, economic, and environmental feasibility of two different solar PTC–ORC plants that cover the electricity and cooling demands of a commercial center in Zaragoza (Spain). The present paper investigates the technical, economic, and environmental feasibility of two different solar PTC–ORC plants that cover the electricity and cooling demands of a commercial center in Zaragoza (Spain) Both systems include a solar system, composed of a PTC field integrated with TES tanks, an ORC, and vapor compression mechanical chillers. The methodology described can be applied to different consumer centers (e.g., office, hotel and hospital buildings) in different geographical locations, and the ORC plant can be modified for instance, to produce heat as a final product or to incorporate absorption chillers for cooling production
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