scholarly journals An Economic, Energy, and Environmental Analysis of PV/Micro-CHP Hybrid Systems: A Case Study of a Tertiary Building

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 4082 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Salmerón Lissén ◽  
Laura Romero Rodríguez ◽  
Francisco Durán Parejo ◽  
Francisco Sánchez de la Flor

Our present standard of living depends strongly on energy sources, with buildings being a primary focus when it comes to reducing energy consumption due to their large contribution, especially in tertiary buildings. The goal of the present study is to evaluate the performance of two different designs of hybrid systems, composed of natural gas engines and photovoltaic panels. This will be done through simulations in TRNSYS, considering a representative office building with various schedules of operation (8, 12, and 24 h), as well as different climates in Spain. The main contributions of this paper are the evaluations of primary energy-consumption, emissions, and economic analyses for each scenario. In addition, a sensitivity analysis is carried out to observe the influence of energy prices, as well as that of the costs of the micro-CHP engines and PV modules. The results show that the scenario with the conventional system and PV modules is the most profitable one currently. However, if electricity prices are increased in the future or natural gas prices are reduced, the scenario with micro-CHP engines and PV modules will become the most profitable option. Energy service engineers, regulators, and manufacturers are the most interested in these results.

Author(s):  
Uğur Uzun ◽  
Zafer Adalı

In this chapter, the authors aim to investigate the association between the primary energy sources' prices involving oil and natural gas and sectors indices operating the Turkey stock market for the period covering 2012M1-2021M3. Regarding energy price indicators, Brent oil and natural gas real-time future prices are preferred in the models, and BIST Industrials (XUSIN), BIST Chem-Petrol Plastic (XKMYA), and BIST Electricity (XELKT) indices are used as financial performance indicators. Fourier unit root tests improved by Becker et al. and Fourier co-integration tests improved by Tsong et al. are employed to investigate the relationship between considered variables. As a result of the models, it is found that the energy prices and financial performance index do not move together in the long run; in other words, change in oil and natural gas prices seem not to have an impact on the sector indexes.


Author(s):  
J Harrod ◽  
P J Mago

Due to the soaring costs and demand of energy in recent years, combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) systems have arisen as an alternative to conventional power generation based on their potential to provide reductions in cost, primary energy consumption, and emissions. However, the application of these systems is commonly limited to internal combustion engine prime movers that use natural gas as the primary fuel source. Investigation of more efficient prime movers and renewable fuel applications is an integral part of improving CCHP technology. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyse the performance of a CCHP system driven by a biomass fired Stirling engine. The study is carried out by considering an hour-by-hour CCHP simulation for a small office building located in Atlanta, Georgia. The hourly thermal and electrical demands for the building were obtained using the EnergyPlus software. Results for burning waste wood chip biomass are compared to results obtained burning natural gas to illustrate the effects of fuel choice and prime mover power output on the overall CCHP system performance. Based on the specified utility rates and including excess production buyback, the results suggest that fuel prices of less than $23/MWh must be maintained for savings in cost compared to the conventional case. In addition, the performance of the CCHP system using the Stirling engine is compared with the conventional system performance. This comparison is based on operational cost and primary energy consumption. When electricity can be sold back to the grid, results indicate that a wood chip fired system yields a potential cost savings of up to 50 per cent and a 20 per cent increase in primary energy consumption as compared with the conventional system. On the other hand, a natural gas fired system is shown to be ineffective for cost and primary energy consumption savings with increases of up to 85 per cent and 24 per cent compared to the conventional case, respectively. The variations in the operational cost and primary energy consumption are also shown to be sensitive to the electricity excess production and buyback rate.


2021 ◽  
Vol 144 ◽  
pp. 14-21
Author(s):  
Vladimir P. Polevanov ◽  

The growth in primary energy consumption in 2019 by 1.3% was provided by renewable energy sources and natural gas, which together provided 75% of the increase. China in the period 2010–2020 held a leading position in the growth of demand for energy resources, but according to forecasts, India will join it in the current decade.


2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olabanji Benjamin Awodumi ◽  
Adebowale Musefiu Adeleke

Abstract This study adopted two-stage DEA to estimate the technical efficiency scores and assess the impact of the two most important components of fossil fuel associated with oil production on macroeconomic efficiency of Seven oil producing African countries during 2005-2012. Our results showed that increasing the consumption of natural gas would improve technical efficiency. Furthermore, increasing the share of fossil fuel in total energy consumption has negative effect on the efficiency of the economies of the top African oil producers. Also, we found that increasing the consumption of primary energy improves efficiency in these economies. We therefore, recommend that governments and other stakeholders in the energy industry should adopt inclusive strategies that will promote the use of natural gas in the short term. However, in the long-run, efforts should be geared towards increasing the use of primary energy, thereby reducing the percentage share of fossil fuel in total energy consumption.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Diego Fernández-Cheliz ◽  
Eloy Velasco-Gómez ◽  
Juan Peral-Andrés ◽  
Ana Tejero-González

In Europe, primary energy consumption in buildings accounts for up to 25–40%, depending on the climate conditions. Space heating and Domestic Hot Water (DHW) contribute significantly to this energy consumption. Among the most common sources for heat generation in these appliances is natural gas. Condensing boilers can surpass the 100% energy performance over the lower heating value, if the operating conditions enable the water vapor in the exhaust gases to condensate. Consequently, optimizing the operating parameters of condensing boilers is necessary to decrease fuel consumption without hindering water heating needs. The present work presents an experimental approach to the operating parameters of a condensing boiler that works with natural gas. The aim is to develop a theoretical model that relates the energy performance to the water temperature set by the final user and the excess air set by the maintenance staff.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prabuddha Sanyal ◽  
Leonard A. Malczynski ◽  
Paul Kaplan

This study evaluates the effects of volatility in crude oil and natural gas prices on fertilizer price variations. Specifically, the study looks at the mean and volatility effects of oil and natural gas prices on both mean and volatility changes in fertilizer prices. Both symmetric models [GARCH (1, 1)] and asymmetric models [GJR (1, 1)] were used to model volatility in fertilizer prices and to evaluate the effects of the volatility over different time periods using Bai-Perron structural break tests. The results show that changes in oil and natural gas prices increased fertilizer prices after the crisis period, during June 2007 to June 2008. Both the ARCH and GARCH had significant effects on fertilizer prices, suggesting that the volatility effects of oil and natural gas prices on fertilizer prices were also significant. Furthermore, the maximum impact of higher energy prices depends on triple superphosphate and diammonium phosphate (DAP) leading to higher production costs and consequent increase in total farm expenditures for crop producers. These higher production costs invariably have a negative effect on farm profitability, thus reducing the investment levels in the farm sector.


2011 ◽  
Vol 335-336 ◽  
pp. 1525-1529
Author(s):  
You Shan Gao ◽  
Ai Hong Wang

Abstract. This paper analyzed the primary energy consumption and emission of VOC, CO, NOx, SO2, PM, CO2, CH4, N2O during natural gas (NG) exploitation, it showing that more than 65% of VOC, NOX, SOx, CH4, CO2and greenhouse gas were discharged by electric energy and heat energy consumption during NG exploitation in all technique energy emission. Because of its important in NG exploitation, the consumption of electric energy and heat energy and its emissions produced should be reduced in order to reduce the emissions of NG exploitation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ting Wang ◽  
Jianghua Liu ◽  
Yongqiang Xu

Abstract China’s coal-based energy structure makes its carbon peak and neutrality goals very challenging. Therefore, the optimization of the energy structure has become an important means, and exploring its influencing factors and trends has become the basis and prerequisite for the formulation of policies related to the optimization of the energy structure. This study adopts regression methods considering heteroskedasticity and cross-section correlation to study the panel data of 30 provinces in China, and obtains the changes of relationship between the fossil and non-fossil fuels consumption of different regions and their influencing factors after two global financial crises. Research results show that, China's energy consumption tends to decouple from GDP. Income structure changes especially trade changes are important factors in influencing energy consumption and energy structure. The deviation of energy resources distribution and consumption distribution tends to strengthen. The impact of urbanization development models, energy prices and efficiency shows regional heteroskedasticity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 2215-2233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Barone ◽  
Annamaria Buonomano ◽  
Francesco Calise ◽  
Adolfo Palombo

Natural gas is typically transported for long distances through high pressure pipelines. Such pressure must be reduced before the gas distribution to users. The natural gas lamination process, traditionally adopted for this scope, may determine hydrate formation which may damagingly affect the system operation. Therefore, in order to avoid such circumstance, a suitable gas preheating is required. On the other hand, the available pressure drop can be recovered through a turbo-expansion system in order to provide mechanical energy to drive electricity generators. In this case a higher gas preheating is necessary. This paper presents a detailed simulation model capable to accurately analyse this process as well as the traditional decompression one. Such new model, implemented in a computer tool written in MATLAB, allows one to dynamically assess the energy, economic and environmental performance of these systems, by also taking into account hourly energy prices and weather conditions. Two turbo-expansion system layouts are modelled and simulated. In particular, the gas preheating is obtained by considering two different scenarios: gas-fired heater or solar thermal collectors. Another novelty of the presented dynamic simulation tool is the capability to take into account the time fluctuations of electricity feed-in and purchase tariffs. Finally, a suitable case study relative to a gas decompression station located in South Italy is also presented. Here, a remarkable primary energy savings and avoided CO2 emissions can be obtained through the examined turbo-expansion systems vs. traditional decompression ones. Results show that the economic profitability of the investigated novel technology depends on the available gas pressure drops and flow rates and on the produced electricity use.


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