No abstract

Today, it is common knowledge that increased use of renewable energies has a significant impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The most notable types of renewable energies are solar energy and wind energy, whose popularity comes from their prominent features such as cost‐effectiveness, stability and easy utilization. The objective of this paper is to perform a technical–economic analysis on combined utilization of solar and wind power in two cities of Qom and Yazd, to conduct a feasibility study on the construction of clean energy producing power plants in these locations. To achieve this objective, we first gather the required data from the national meteorological organization, and then use Homer software to perform technical and economic analyses on the two considered sites. Solar and wind analyses on Qom and Yazd show that both cities have great potential in solar energy generation, but wind speed data indicate that only Qom has the wind characteristics appropriate for wind power generation. Overall, these results indicate that investments on solar energy sector of both cities will be economically justified, but only Qom has the wind characteristics required to make investments on its wind energy sector economic. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 36: 1194–1207, 2017

A model for operating an energy hub-based multiple energy generation micro-grid is optimized using the demand response program. The optimized objective model is validated against energy demand of a residential building in Tehran, Iran. The mathematical model and optimal analysis of the proposed tri-generation micro-grid are implemented by using a real-world modelling and considering the constraints of the storage system, demand response program and the performance of the devices and the power and gas grids. The dynamic optimal operation model is prepared on the basis of the mixed integer linear programming on the subsequent day and is solved to minimize the costs of energy supply. To demonstrate the improvements, different scenarios are developed so that the renewable energy resources and storages are fed into the combined cool, heat and power system gradually. The results reveal that the inclusion of each element results in a significant improvement in the operational parameters of the micro energy grid. Scenario 1 includes a combined cool, heat and power system alone, Scenario 2 is supplemented with renewable wind and solar energy resources in addition to combined cool, heat and power system and Scenario 3 includes electrical, heat and cold storages in addition to combined cool, heat and power system and renewable energy sources. Scenario 4 is similar to Scenario 3 in terms of equipment, but the only difference lies in the use of the demand response program in the former. Total operational cost is 12.7% lower in Scenario 2 than in Scenario 1, 9.2% lower in Scenario 3 than in Scenario 2 and 8.6% lower in Scenario 4 than in Scenario 3. Practical application: An optimized operation method is prepared for combined cool, heat and power systems running in different operation modes in which renewable energy sources and storages are added to the combined cool, heat and power and the demand response program is applied. The results reveal that the cost of energy supply, including the cost of electricity, gas and pollutant emissions, is reduced and the qualitative parameters of the operation, including efficiency and reliability of building micro-grid, are increased. The proposed algorithm and the evaluation method will enable building operators to plan demand response activity on the residential building in Tehran, while this can be extended to other buildings too.

In building applications, there is a dynamic interaction/coupling between the energy performance and the indoor air quality (IAQ) performance. Previously, the performance of energy consumption (EC) and IAQ has been evaluated independently. In this study, an energy performance model (EnergyPlus) and IAQ performance model (CONTAM: contaminant transport analysis) were simultaneously coupled as a new integrated simulation model in which the control variables were exchanged between the two models. Two scenarios were provided in this study for a three-story house. The first scenario addressed the effect of airtightness only. The second scenario, however, addressed the airtightness with an exhaust fan with an upgraded filter. In order to better analyze the accuracy of the simulations, the performance of the energy and IAQ were simulated independently using the EnergyPlus model and CONTAM model. Thereafter, the performance of the energy and IAQ were simulated using the present integrated simulation model. All simulations were conducted for the climatic conditions of Montreal and Miami. The results of the integrated simulation model showed that the exchange of control variables between both EnergyPlus and CONTAM produced accurate results for the performance of both energy and IAQ. Finally, the necessity of using the present integrated simulation model is discussed.