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Waste heat recovery

The Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is named for its use of an organic, high molecular mass fluid with a liquid-vapor phase change, or boiling point, occurring at a lower temperature than the water-steam phase change. The fluid allows Rankine cycle heat recovery from lower temperature sources such as biomass combustion, industrial waste heat, geothermal heat, solar ponds etc. The low-temperature heat is converted into useful work, that can itself be converted into electricity.

This ORC module will generate 125 kw of clean, utility grade power from waste heat recovery or from solar thermally heated water.

 

 

Power Transmission – Power Distribution Systems

Latento hot water storage system

When the fluid in the evacuated tube system has reached the desired temperature, it’s automatically pumped into a Latento storage tank. Heat exchange mechanisms then heat water within the tank ready for use. The revolutionary Latento storage system is an unpressurised unit designed so that hot water can be stored for several days. Thanks to the coupling and position of the exchanger, residual energy that is usually not available for heating or hot water can be utilised. In addition to multiple heat exchange coils, the Latento unit contains special food grade latent material that “melts” at a temperature of approx. 65 °C. In the process, the latent material absorbs thermal energy without changing the temperature in the storage tank. This material creates a highly efficient insulating layer. The efficiency of the Latento system means less solar collector surface is required to achieve the same results of other systems.

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Energy from the sun

The total solar energy absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere, oceans and land masses is approximately 3,850,000 exajoules (EJ) per year.  This is more energy gained in one hour than the world would use in one year. The amount of solar energy reaching the surface of the planet is so vast that in one year it is about twice as much as will ever be obtained from all of the Earth’s non-renewable resources of coal, oil, natural gas, and mined uranium combined.

Evacuated solar tube system

Flat plate

Benefits at a glance

• High performance and quality construction at an attractive price

• These tubes are hail resistent and have been tested against golf ball size hail stone.

• As they can be laid flat, they can withstand hurricane winds.

• Available in two sizes: 9 tubes (17.6 ft.2 / 1.63 m2) and 18 tubes (35.1 ft.2 / 3.26 m2)*

• Up to 215 ft.2 / 20 m2 (108 tubes) can be connected in single array*

• Highly efficient heat pipe vacuum tube collector for high operational reliability; optimized for installation on fl at roofs

• Optimized tube spacing prevents shading; tubes can be rotated up to 45° for optimum alignment with the sun to maximize energy utilization

• Can be installed either vertically or horizontally, on roofs or as freestanding installation

• Highly selective coating on absorber surfaces; with vacuum tubes, absorbers are not susceptible to contamination over time

• Efficient heat transfer through fully encapsulated condensers

• Dry connection allows tube fitting and replacement while system is fully charged and operational

• Highly effective thermal insulation minimizes heat loss through header casing

• Easy installation using quick assembly and connection systems

Combination solar electric (PV) and thermal hot water

 

 

 

Thermal Cold or Hot Water Storage Tanks

Thermal energy storage (TES) is achieved with greatly differing technologies that collectively accommodate a wide range of needs. It allows excess thermal energy to be collected for later use, hours, days or many months later, at individual building, multiuser building, district, town or even regional scale depending on the specific technology. As examples: energy demand can be balanced between day time and night time; summer heat from solar collectors can be stored interseasonally for use in winter; and cold obtained from winter air can be provided for summer air conditioning. Storage mediums include: water or ice-slush tanks ranging from small to massive, masses of native earth or bedrock accessed with heat exchangers in clusters of small-diameter boreholes (sometimes quite deep); deep aquifers contained between impermeable strata; shallow, lined pits filled with gravel and water and top-insulated; and eutectic, phase-change materials.

Other sources of thermal energy for storage include heat or cold produced with heat pumps from off-peak, lower cost electric power, a practice called peak shaving; heat from combined heat and power (CHP) power plants; heat produced by renewable electrical energy that exceeds grid demand and waste heat from industrial processes.

 

 

 

Solar energy storage

Main articles: Solar hot water storage tank and Seasonal thermal energy storage

Most practical active solar heating systems provide storage for from a few hours to a day’s worth of energy collected. There are a growing number of facilities that use seasonal thermal energy storage (STES), enabling solar energy to be stored in summer (primarily) for space heating use during winter. The Drake Landing Solar Community in Alberta, Canada has now achieved a year-round 97% solar heating fraction, a world record and possible only by incorporating STES.

Molten salt is a means of storing heat at a high temperature. This is a current commercial technology used in conjunction with concentrated solar power for later use in electricity generation, to allow solar power to provide electricity on a more continuous basis. These molten salts (Potassium nitrate, Calcium nitrate, Sodium nitrate, Lithium nitrate, etc.) have the property to absorb and store the heat energy that is released to the water, to transfer energy when needed. To improve the salt properties it must be mixed in a eutectic mixture.

 

 

 

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Solar PV

Solar photovoltaics are arrays of cells containing a material that converts solar  radiation into direct current electricity.

This is a project to design and build a system that uses a combination of direct and indirect solar collection to generate electricity and store thermal energy in an economical, environmentally friendly, scalable, reliable, efficient and location independent manner using common construction materials. The project is being managed with a similar methodology to Open Source Software Development and the ideas and contributions are being published openly on the Internet without an attempt to secure patents. The hope is that with an open philosophy that the project shows similar Rapid Application Development and success as Linux and other Open Source Software projects and provides a system that can meet future energy requirements in a sustainable manner.

 

 

 

Solar heat pump electrical generation system

Diagram of solar air conditioning/solar heating system

By properly applying solar thermal energy to the absorption chiller units, the need for gas firing or other heat source is avoided; the result is a solar powered air conditioning system with truly extraordinary energy savings.

 

 

 

Solar absorption chiller

Absorption chiller air conditioners are not new.  They have been used in commercial applications in the U.S. since the early 20th century and are a very widely deployed technology.  Absorption chiller AC units are also very popular in Asian countries such as Japan, where the high cost of electricity makes  them very popular. In Japan, these absorption chiller Air Conditioning units constitute up to 40% of all installed commercial air conditioning tonnage. They are simple and dependable, use no harmful CFC (Freon, etc.) and some units actually operate without any moving parts.

When engineered to run on solar energy, the absorption chiller AC unit provides the lowest cost to operate and the best return on investment of any air conditioning system in the world.

Our solar heating and air conditioning units can be used anywhere that the sun shines

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• They are low in operating and maintenance costs.

• They consume little or no electrical energy – essentially the only parts that use electricity are low amp fan motors and small pumps that move the thermal transfer fluid (Glycol, a food-grade antifreeze) from the collectors to the chiller and then back up to the collectors – all of these small electrical loads can run from solar PV panels if desired. Inside the unit is another small pump that circulates the refrigerant.

• There is no “compressor” to consume power.

 

 

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Humidity Control

The most reliable and economical way of dealing with the humidity is through the use of a desiccant dehumidifier. This will provide you with an excellent ice surface during all weather conditions at a fraction of the operating cost of the old style mechanical dehumidifiers.

One of the largest contributing factors of having a great ice surface is proper humidity control in the building envelope. Excess humidity also increases the refrigeration load on the ice plant. The NHL has gone as far to set a humidity control standard for all their arenas. The NHL standard is 60 deg F and 40% RH or a dew point of 35 deg F. This level of control has been determined to maintain the best possible ice conditions and spectator comfort.

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