1. Techno-economic and environmental studies on a solar photovoltaic powered 3.5 kW air conditioning system for desert dwellings.
- Author
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Gopinath, Arun S., Al Quri, Khalifa, and Santhappan, Joseph Sekhar
- Subjects
POWER plants ,ENVIRONMENTAL sciences ,AIR conditioning ,COMBINED cycle power plants ,CLIMATE extremes ,NET present value ,INVESTORS - Abstract
Sultanate of Oman, a country of subtropical dry climate and extreme temperature variations is keen in to escalating the percentage of green electricity component in power systems and reduce the global warming potential of its energy sector. Literature shows that more than 40 % of the total electricity demand is from residential customers and out of this, 70 % is owing to space-cooling loads. Average annual solar irradiance in major part of the country is 5.8 kWh/m2/day which attracts Photo Voltaic (PV) technology for power generation. Since the electricity tariff has been changed recently, replacing the grid electricity with the Solar PV power could be an attractive option. Therefore, the feasibility of using PV power for a 3.5 kW domestic cooling system was modelled in RETScreen software, and the major parameters related to feasibility were calculated. A 3 kW PV array with 300 W modules was uses as the power plant. Capacity factor in the region was taken as 20%. Total annual electricity exported to the air conditioning system was calculated as 5431 kWh. Annual income which can be generated from the PV electricity while exporting to the grid was 679 $. When the Natural gas based combined cycle power plant is replaced with PV, the emission of Green House Gases (GHG) will be controlled and it accounts to 3 tons of CO2 (tCO2). Financial analysis of the project showed that the simple payback period could be 11.7 years with a negative Net Present value (NPV) of 785 $ without any subsidy for the investor and without considering any GHG reduction income. RETScreen financial feasibility analysis showed that the project could be feasible if the authorities give a subsidy for the investors, atleast 20 % in the initial investment and adopt GHG reduction rate of 20 $/tCO2. Simple payback period became 8 years with a positive NPV of 1615$. The analysis revealed that project could be attractive and feasible with the subsidies and policy making for the GHG credit rates along with the expected project life of 25 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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