Energy, exergy, and economic analysis of an off-grid solar polygeneration system

Abstract

Sustainable development goal 13 emphasizes on climate change, due to which there is an urgent need for a transition towards sustainable energy technologies. There are two key issues on the commercialization of renewable energy technologies viz. performance (efficiency) and economic viability. This paper conducts a 3E (Energy, Exergy, Economic) analysis for a novel off-grid solar polygeneration energy technology producing electricity using the solar PV and hot water along with hot air using the solar thermal system. The analysis has been carried out across four Indian provinces such as Andhra Pradesh (AP), Madhya Pradesh (MP), Uttar Pradesh (UP), and Uttarakhand (UTK) located in four climatic zones. For the solar PV unit, the amount of annual electricity production in kWh are 1748, 1799, 1629, 1434 in mentioned four states, and the annual Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) in ₹/kWh are 9.8, 9.6, 10.5, 12 for AP, MP, UP, and UTK respectively. The values of annual average energy efficiency of the solar thermal system in percentage are 64.6 for AP, 64.5 for MP, 64.2 for UP, and 58.3 for UTK, while exergy efficiency are found to be 1.3, 1.4, 1.2, and 0.7 in percentage for the mentioned states. For the solar thermal unit, the values of payback period in years are obtained to be 5.2, 5.5, 7.5, 9.4 and the values of Benefit-Cost ratio (BCR) are 1.32, 1.25, 0.90, 0.73 for AP, MP, UP, and UTK respectively. An innovative business model coupled with utility policy is required for large-scale deployment of these sustainable energy technologies.