Design, Economic, and Environmental Accounting Assessment of a Solar-Powered Cold Room for Fish Storage in Traditional Markets

Abstract

The food industry, crucial for emerging economies, faces challenges in refrigeration, particularly in fish storage. High energy consumption, environmental impact, and improper cooling methods leading to food waste are significant issues. Addressing these challenges is vital for economic and environmental sustainability in the food sector, especially concerning fish storage where spoilage rates are high. In this context, this research proposes a sizing methodology, evaluation, and parametric simulations based on multi-criteria attributes for a solar PV-powered cold room for storing fish in traditional markets in Morocco. To identify the cooling load of the system, TRNSYS 16 was utilized to simulate the transient behavior, while the PV array specifications were determined using SAM 2017.9.5 software. The design process introduced a cold room coupled to a refrigeration unit powered by a 15.3 m2 PV array with a 1.8 kWp nameplate capacity. Finally, yearly and life cycle metrics including self-sufficiency, self-consumption, Levelized Cost of Cooling (LCOC), discounted payback period (DPP), CO2 emissions avoided and total environmental penalty cost savings (TEPCS) are evaluated to assess the performance of the system and a sensitivity analysis was conducted on these metrics. The proposed system has an attractive LCOC of 0.131 $/kWhCold and a DPP of 3.511 years. Using the PV array proved to avoid 437.56 tons of CO2 emissions and generated TEPCS from $100.59 to $866.66. The results of this study highlight the potential for utilizing renewable energy sources in the refrigeration sector to improve both economic and environmental sustainability.