Search

Summary: In this study, a solar‐based integrated system is designed and analyzed thermodynamically using the first‐ and second‐law approaches. The sustainable energy island concept is developed to meet the energy and commodity demands of emerging countries in a sustainable manner. The proposed system utilizes an energy island concept where solar energy is the main source and provides electricity, freshwater, and hydrogen by integrating a floating photovoltaic system, a parabolic through collector system, the Cu‐Cl cycle, a multi‐effect desalination unit, and a fuel cell unit in a sustainable fashion. The hydrogen‐based system is used to store energy in the chemical form to compensate for the time when the solar radiation is not available. A transient analysis is carried out to realistically determine the performance of the proposed system in a case study where Northern Cyprus is considered with its annual electricity demand. The proposed system averagely achieves an overall energy efficiency of 14.06% and an overall exergy efficiency of 14.61% while producing a total of 7.1 ton/h of hydrogen, a total of 115.4 ton/h of freshwater, and a total of 362.4 MWp of electricity, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In this study, a unique energy system integrated with an agrivoltaic plant, a biogas production and utilization facility, and a community‐based energy system is analyzed in order to fully cover the needs of electricity, biogas, heat, and cooling for a community. The bifacial photovoltaic modules with a high structure are considered in this design, where they cover the sugarcane field as the agrivoltaic system. Both sugarcane and cow manure are considered and used to generate biogas. An integrated energy system is proposed to meet the electricity, heating, and cooling requirements of a community in a case study. The capacities of the components are determined according to a community load selected for a case study with more than 34 000 people living in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. A biogas‐based combined cycle with two stages of the Rankine cycle, as well as a bifacial photovoltaic‐based system, are used to generate electricity. The excess heat is recovered and used to cover the heating loads of the community for greenhouse and food dryer, as well as in a lithium bromide absorption refrigeration cycle to provide cooling. The first and second laws of thermodynamics are used with the mass, energy, entropy, and exergy balance equations to analyze and evaluate the system. A time‐dependent analysis is carried out to provide more insightful details about the system for each hour throughout the whole year. The experimental data for the biogas production system and actual meteorological data are considered with commercially available component and unit specifications to provide more realistic results. An 8 MWp of PV plant with 415 MWp of a biogas power plant as well as 105 MWp of high‐ and low‐pressure steam turbines can meet 100% of 92 GWh nonthermal electricity, 63 GWh cooling, and 13 GWh heating loads in a year. The overall energy and exergy efficiencies of the overall system are found to be 33.64% and 22.96% under average ambient conditions and average load requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant (DCNPP) is the last active nuclear power plant in California state. In 2016, the owner of the nuclear plant decided to close the DCNPP by 2025. This paper presents a study on the potential enhancement of DCNPP with a newly developed integrated solar energy‐based system. The active pressurized water nuclear reactor (PWNR) units of DCNPP are modeled and integrated with a parabolic trough (PT) type concentrated solar power (CSP) plant, a multi‐effect desalination unit, a heat pump and two district heating systems, and a CuCl thermochemical hydrogen production plant. DCNPP is enhanced with the proposed system to comply with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)'s energy generation regulations and help achieve California's emission reduction goals. The number of useful outputs with the proposed system is increased from one to five, namely, electricity, district heating, domestic hot water, fresh water, and hydrogen. For the utilization of the useful outputs, a large‐scale greenhouse, administration building, and on‐site lodgment are considered the local demandants for fresh water, district heating, electricity, and domestic hot water utilities. The excess electricity and hydrogen are considered for commercial purposes. Thermodynamic analyses with energetic and exergetic approaches are carried out with parametric studies. For the assessment, real data are employed for PT‐CSP and DCNPP. Simulations are carried out on the system advisor model (SAM) for PT‐CSP and on Aspen Plus for the thermochemical hydrogen production plant. The proposed plant and its subsystems are assessed through an engineering equation solver (EES). The proposed integration has demonstrated 46.95% overall energy efficiency and 32.51% overall exergy efficiency during the main working mode in the average ambient conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]