End-use matching of solar energy systems

Abstract

The choice among available energy sources for a given task requires technical and economic tradeoffs on the part of the individual investor. From the national perspective, however, the effectiveness with which available energy sources are utilized may well become an overriding consideration. End-use matching is a procedure for introducing solar energy into the national energy infrastructure. The result of end-use matching is an identification of the most cost-effective combination of process energy needs, solar collector technology, geographic location, and economics by matching currently available solar system hardware with particular industrial processes and their locations. End-use matching is not intended to be a design tool for a specific plant, but rather a planning tool for determining where and why general applications solar systems appear economically viable in the near future. This paper discusses the end-use matching methodology, and illustrates first and second law thermodynamics analyses applied to a solar system producing process steam.