Abstract
Solar energy is widely recognized as one of the most attractive renewable energy sources to support the transition toward a decarbonized society. Use of low- and medium-temperature concentrated solar technologies makes decentralized power production of combined heating and power (CHP) an alternative to conventional energy conversion systems. However, because of the changes in solar radiation and the inertia of the different subsystems, the operation control of concentrated solar power (CSP) plants is fundamental to increasing their overall conversion efficiency and improving reliability. Therefore, in this study, the operation control of a micro-scale CHP plant consisting of a linear Fresnel reflector solar field, an organic Rankine cycle unit, and a phase change material thermal energy storage tank, as designed and built under the EU-funded Innova Microsolar project by a consortium of universities and companies, is investigated. In particular, a fuzzy logic control is developed in MATLAB/Simulink by the authors in order to (i) initially recognize the type of user according to the related energy consumption profile by means of a neural network and (ii) optimize the thermal-load-following approach by introducing a set of fuzzy rules to switch among the different operation modes. Annual simulations are performed by combining the plant with different thermal load profiles. In general, the analysis shows that that the proposed fuzzy logic control increases the contribution of the TES unit in supplying the ORC unit, while reducing the number of switches between the different OMs. Furthermore, when connected with a residential user load profile, the overall electrical and thermal energy production of the plant increases. Hence, the developed control logic proves to have good potential in increasing the energy efficiency of low- and medium-temperature concentrated solar ORC systems when integrated into the built environment.
Highlights
The increasing energy demand worldwide, the catastrophic effects of climate changes, and the limited conventional energy sources are stressing increasingly the key role of renewable energy technologies for sustainable development
As can be noted by comparing the results reported in Table 10 with plant collected thermal energy by the linear Fresnel reflectors (LFRs) (Eth,LFR), inlet thermal energy to the ORC unit (Eth,ORCin), electric energy output from is higher (6450 kWhe and 58,800 kWth, respectively, in the case of a baseline controller the ORC (Eel,ORC), thermal energy output from the ORC (Eth,ORCout), electric efficiency, thermal efficiency, and 6740 kWhe and 61,680 kWth, respectively, in the case of a fuzzy logic controller), input thermal energy to the thermal energy storage (TES) (Eth,TESin), and output thermal energy to the TES (Eth,TESout)
Work, a fuzzy controller performing the thermal load following of user profiles was developed to improve the energy use and overall conversion efficiency of different user profiles was developed to improve the energy use and overall conversion aefficiency micro-solar plant based on plant an LFR
Summary
The increasing energy demand worldwide, the catastrophic effects of climate changes, and the limited conventional energy sources are stressing increasingly the key role of renewable energy technologies for sustainable development. CSP plants are able to concentrate the incident radiation into a smaller area by means of lenses or mirrors This energy is collected by a solar receiver and converted into electricity or thermal power, depending on the need. Among the different methods of capturing solar thermal energy in CSP plants, linear Fresnel reflectors (LFRs) are considered a promising alternative to parabolic trough collectors in the medium-temperature range. The former can overcome some techno-economic limits of the latter, thanks to a lighter structure and a fixed receiver
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