Abstract
The feasibility of employing stand-alone solar energy systems to meet demand-side loads depends strongly on providing appropriate solar energy storage. The present paper presents an efficient and economical, underground, thermal storage design to store hot water at a temperature of around 180?C required for running a double effect absorption chiller to cool a zero-energy-house in a desert environment. The performance of the design is evaluated employing a specially developed efficient mathematical model, for simulating the steady state radiation, convection and conduction processes occurring within the storage unit. The model is presented and analyzed, and employed to investigate the effects of various design parameters on storage efficiency. It is demonstrated that high storage efficiency may be reached, providing that appropriate insulation materials are used. It is also revealed that the soil conductivity has little effect on storage efficiency.
Highlights
Solar radiation varies greatly throughout the daytime hours, whereas it is completely absent during night-time hours, which poses a challenge in adapting solar energy to match stringent demand-side requirements
The paper presents a simple design for solar energy storage in the intermediate temperature range suitable for the desert environment
The storage unit is built below ground, freeing valuable residential space, and is environmentally friendly, safe, robust, requires minimum maintenance, and is easy to monitor and repair on site, even in a desert environment
Summary
Solar radiation varies greatly throughout the daytime hours, whereas it is completely absent during night-time hours, which poses a challenge in adapting solar energy to match stringent demand-side requirements. When roof-top Photovoltaic modules are employed to collect solar radiation and convert it straight to electrical energy to drive an electrical vapor-compression type chiller, e.g. High temperature applications employing heat as the source of energy often use concrete or ceramic storage, as well as molten salts and chemical storage [2,3]. In this work we are concerned with the design of a solar energy storage unit for a stand-alone solar energy concentrator, driving a double effect absorption chiller system to cool a two floor house in a hot desert environment. Double effect chillers require a heat source at approximately 170 ̊C, setting the target temperature for the heat storage unit at 180 ̊C for the supply to the chiller-generator, and 170 ̊C for the return from generator. SERAG-ELDIN producing heat in the temperature range between 90 ̊C 200 ̊C
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