In this thesis, the feasibility of a solar assisted district cooling system for the Al Hamra village(phase 4) under RAK weather conditions is assessed. Utilizing solar energy is very attractive since the cooling requirements are in phase with the solar energy availability.
The research was conducted to estimate the dynamic cooling load of the AL Hamra village phase 4 using Design Builder (DB) and Transient System Simulation(TRNSYS) softwares and designing an economically feasible and environmental friendly solar assisted district cooling system which can meet the yearly cooling load demand besides maintaining thermal comfort of the village residencies.
The simulation results showed hourly peak cooling demand of about 37 MW cooling which occurs in July (Design day) when the average hourly unshaded temperature exceeds 500 C and the annual cooling energy demand is about 123 GWhrs. After the analyzing of techno-economical feasible solar assisted district cooling system, two feasible options were found. One is environmental standpoint and other one is for economical standpoint.
The environmental standpoint solution is cooling system with solar assisted cooling system with single effect absorption chillers (with 50 % solar fraction and direct sea water condenser cooling). This system save primary energy 5,397 m3 annually and save 13,874 tons of CO2 emission annually. The payback period of this system is 14 years and 10 months and which save the money US $ 2,501,388 in every year.
The economical standpoint solution is cooling system with water cooled vapor compression chiller system. This system saves primary energy 2,908 m3 annually and save 7,442 tons of CO2 emission annually. The payback period of this system is just 8 years and 10 months and which save the money US $ 1,347,672 in every year.
Source: KTH
Author: Perera, Withanage Chanaka Sameera
