Trigeneration system driven by the geothermal and solar sources

Abstract

In this study, a novel trigeneration system is conceived to produce heat and electricity and to provide cooling for the health treatments and touristic facilities of a spa, based on the natural hot water and solar sources. The power generation components, individually considered, are commercially available ones, but their novel combination and the complex power flow management represented a challenge. The proposed system is composed of a low-temperature driven adsorption chiller, thermally activated by a low enthalpy geothermal source, and by hybrid photovoltaic/thermal panels. In this way, multiple objectives are achieved: produce electricity and thermal energy by renewable sources; optimise the use of different renewable sources (geothermal and solar); use the energy available for free from a geothermal source also during summer (otherwise wasted) to produce a cooling effect, and in so doing, avoiding the huge electricity consumption of conventional air conditioning units in summer; reduce the temperature of the fluids released to the environment (in a natural reserve); reduce the CO2 emissions by 45% with respect to the present configuration, limiting the global warming. The mathematical models were experimentally validated using a pilot plant built on purpose, and the performance of the whole system was analysed and discussed.

Application of a Blockchain Model in the Energy Market for Social Goodness: A Simulator to Generate Transactions

“…In buildings it is now possible, and required [1], to implement any automated management system [8,32] and such management is currently implementable without any particular external constraints. Some articles help to define the impact that automated management can have on the economics [2,3,11,18,21,22,24,33] and reliability [30] of the systems and to suggest a planning methodology based on the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the reciprocal impacts among smart strategies [34][35][36][37][38][39] or to propose intelligent approaches to forecast electricity consumptions [40]. Aspects related to the reliability of management models and data security [4,5], a relevant topic for the development of new electric transport management technologies [6], are explored in the literature.…”

“…Generator nodes (photovoltaic panels, micro-wind, co-generators, micro-ORCs) have been chosen from the perspective of energy diversification. As far as co-generators are concerned [37], cogeneration groups of variable size, from 6 kWel and 15 kWt up to 530 kWel and 660 kWt, have been considered. With regard to photovoltaic panels, their behavior is influenced by the global insolation on the oriented surfaces of the panels and by cloudiness [28]; the sizes considered are domestic (6-15 kW).…”