| heal.abstract |
Energy and environmental issues call for an increase of the use of renewable energy. Solar Heating Plants with Seasonal Storage (SHPSS) are promising systems. In Greece, large-scale solar thermal systems are not used widely contrary to the high potential of solar radiation. In this paper, a greenhouse Solar Heating Plant with Seasonal Storage (SHPSS) is simulated using TRNSYS 16 to predict its thermal and economic performance. TRNSYS 16 with its complete and extensible graphical environment makes easy the simulation of real SHPSS parameters. The greenhouse is located in Thessaloniki prefecture, northern Greece. The SHPSS consists of an array of flat plate collectors, a medium-sized storage tank and the thermal load. The load is a greenhouse of an area of 1000 m2. The SHPSS has a 900 m2 solar collector area and a 552 m3 of storage volume. The solar liquid was water. TRNSYS 16 prediction for the system is that about 40% of the total heating load of 705 000 MJ/year can be provided from the sun. The rest of the required energy can be provided by co-heating with conventional or biomass burner. With regard to the duration of the stagnation period, the used tank is reasonably seasonal because its temperature stays high for a relatively long period time (about 90°C for about 4000 h a year). The solar fraction for different system sizes and the 'virtual solar self-sufficiency' conditions are also analyzed even though the actual system was found to be not economically viable. The calculations reveal that a low-cost SHPSS in combination with a biomass burner could be viable in depth of time. |
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