Stand-Alone Photovoltaic and Hydrogen Plant Coupled With a Gas Heat Pump for Greenhouse Heating

Abstract

In recent years, the increasing interest in energy production from renewable energy sources has led to stand-alone renewable energy plant being developed in agricultural land. In particular, for greenhouses heating, diesel, LPG and natural gas are the main energy sources used. Alternative solutions are represented by the integration of renewable energy plants in off grid configurations. The aims of this research is to analyzed the energy performance of a photovoltaic, hydrogen and ground source gas heat pump integrated stand-alone system during the winter season. The results showed that the system had a total energy efficiency to 13%. The performance of the system was low because the efficiency of the photovoltaic panels was the bottleneck. In fact, starting from the energy available from the PV, the system has an efficiency of 96% if the COP of the heat pump is equal to 4. Finally, the heating system increased the greenhouse air temperature about 8°C respect to the external air temperature.