How much does it cost to go off-grid with renewables?: A case study of a polygeneration system for a neighbourhood in hermosillo, MexicoShow others and affiliations
2020 (English)In: 11th International Conference on Sustainability and Energy in Buildings, SEB 2019, Springer , 2020, p. 395-405Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
As governments and companies struggle to meet their own objectives for the energy transition, more innovative social and technological measures are needed to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. For this purpose, an assessment of an off-grid polygeneration system, which can serve the electric and cooling demand of a neighbourhood in Hermosillo, Mexico, has been conducted. Energy computations have been done, the energy demand of one dwelling has been measured to ascertain the correctness of the computations, and a demand model for the entire neighbourhood has been created. Based on the model, an off-grid polygeneration system has been designed, which uses a biodiesel engine, PV panels, and an absorption chiller. The system has been optimized for its economic performance and is compared to the currently used system. The results show that the polygeneration system with higher energy efficiency could reduce GHG emissions down to 14%. However, electricity in Hermosillo is heavily subsidized making it harder for innovative systems to compete. Moreover, even without the state subsidies to the end user, the polygeneration system has still a nearly 30% higher Net Present Cost (NPC) than the conventional system over its project lifetime of 20 years. Nonetheless, with precise political incentives and further advances in the applied technologies, small-scale renewable polygeneration systems could become cost-efficient alternatives in the near future.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer , 2020. p. 395-405
Keywords [en]
Bio-solar, Off-grid polygeneration, Urban energy systems, Gas emissions, Greenhouse gases, Photovoltaic cells, Sustainable development, Absorption chillers, Conventional systems, Economic performance, Energy transitions, Poly-generation, Polygeneration system, Energy efficiency
National Category
Energy Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-268005DOI: 10.1007/978-981-32-9868-2_34Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85076483824OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-268005DiVA, id: diva2:1417507
Conference
11th International Conference on Sustainability and Energy in Buildings, SEB 2019, 4-5 July 2019, Budapest, Hungary
Funder
StandUp
Note
QC 20200329
2020-03-292020-03-292026-04-27Bibliographically approved