Search results for "Concentrating solar power"
showing 7 items of 7 documents
MED parallel system powered by concentrating solar power (CSP): model and case study: Trapani, Sicily
2014
Abstract: This work presents an overlook on a new model that simulates the physical operation in steady state of a multi-effect distillation (MED) plant with parallel-feed (P) configuration. This model includes the consumption of steam with steam ejectors, and its validation was done using data from a real MED industrial plant using a thermal vapor compressor (TVC) operating in Italy, in the Sicilian city of Trapani. Results show that the MED model returns accurate predictions of the plant behavior, very useful for a first analysis on such type of investments. This MED model was also integrated into the system advisor model developed by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Simulatio…
Concrete thermal energy storage for linear Fresnel collectors: Exploiting the South Mediterranean’s solar potential for agri-food processes
2018
Abstract Italy is celebrated in the world for its agri-food industries while the process of production of pasta is highly energy demanding and requires both electrical and thermal energy simultaneously. Because most of the Italian factories producing pasta are located in the Southern part of the country, the direct use of thermal energy generated from the sun would be particularly profitable. In this study, the authors examine the possibility of generating by a Solar Industrial Process Heating plant the thermal energy required annually by an existing factory that produces durum wheat pasta located in Sicily (Italy). The hypothesized plant scheme consists of an array of Fresnel linear solar …
Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of a dish-Stirling Concentrating Solar Power Plant in the Mediterranean area
2021
Abstract Among the different renewable energy sources, solar energy shows the highest exploitation potential to satisfy a substantial portion of the worlds’ future energy demand, guaranteeing at the same time lower emissions than conventional energy providers. Much of this potential is usable thanks to Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technologies, of which the dish-Stirling concentrator is the most efficient. Nevertheless, the production and installation phases of the dish-Stirling technology can have an environmental impact which motivated the assessment of the plant in the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, economic and social). The present publication evaluated an existin…
A methodology for optimisation of solar dish-Stirling systems size, based on the local frequency distribution of direct normal irradiance
2021
Abstract In geographical areas where direct solar irradiation levels are relatively high, concentrated solar energy systems are one of the most promising green energy technologies. Dish-Stirling systems are those that achieve the highest levels of solar-to-electric conversion efficiency, and yet they are still among the least common commercially available technologies. This paper focuses on a strategy aimed at promoting greater diffusion of dish-Stirling systems, which involves optimizing the size of the collector aperture area based on the hourly frequency distributions of beam irradiance and defining a new incentive scheme with a feed-in tariff that is variable with the installed costs of…
Development of Neural Network Prediction Models for the Energy Producibility of a Parabolic Dish: A Comparison with the Analytical Approach
2022
Solar energy is one of the most widely exploited renewable/sustainable resources for electricity generation, with photovoltaic and concentrating solar power technologies at the forefront of research. This study focuses on the development of a neural network prediction model aimed at assessing the energy producibility of dish–Stirling systems, testing the methodology and offering a useful tool to support the design and sizing phases of the system at different installation sites. Employing the open-source platform TensorFlow, two different classes of feedforward neural networks were developed and validated (multilayer perceptron and radial basis function). The absolute novelty of this approac…
Energy and Environmental Assessment of a Hybrid Dish-Stirling Concentrating Solar Power Plant
2022
Although the 2019 global pandemic slowed the growing trend of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, it has since resumed its rise, prompting world leaders to accelerate the generation of electricity from renewable sources. The study presented in this paper is focused on the evaluation of the energy and environmental benefits corresponding to the hypothesis of hybridizing a dish-Stirling plant installed on the university campus of Palermo (Italy). These analyses were carried out by means of dynamic simulations based on an accurate energy model validated with the experimental data collected during the measurement campaign that occurred during the period of operation of the reference plant. As…
MODELLING, OPTIMIZATION, AND 3E-ANALYSIS OF DISH-STIRLING CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER SYSTEMS
2022
raggiungimento degli obiettivi del precedente Accordo di Parigi, tutti i Paesi sono stati invitati a impegnarsi a garantire l'azzeramento globale entro la metà del secolo e a mantenere l'aumento della temperatura media globale significativamente al di sotto dei 2 °C, rispetto ai livelli preindustriali, entro il 2050, e più precisamente entro il limite superiore di 1,5 °C. Tutti i Paesi stanno concentrando le loro politiche su una transizione energetica globale che consiste nell'aumento dell'uso di fonti rinnovabili per la generazione di elettricità e nell'uso diretto di calore e biomassa rinnovabili, nell'uso diretto di elettricità pulita nei trasporti e nelle applicazioni termiche, nel mig…