EMERGING ROLE FOR ABSORPTION CHILLERS IN INTEGRATED ENERGY SYSTEMS IN AMERICA

摘要

President Bush's National Energy Policy, Clear Skies and the Global Climate Change Initiatives form a comprehensive roadmap to a secure, clean, reliable, and affordable energy supply for the future. These far reaching policy proposals rely heavily on the development of distributed energy systems. The cornerstone of distributed energy systems is the emergence of Integrated Energy Systems (IES), which will permit consulting engineers to substantially improve energy efficiency. Thermally Activated Technologies, in general, and absorption chillers, in particular, are increasingly being viewed as an important element to effectively apply IES designs to the American building stock. This paper will examine testing, demonstration projects and commercial applications of combining absorption chiller equipment with microturbines, engines, combustion turbines and thermal solar systems. Technical challenges of coupling absorption chillers to prime mover exhaust streams will be explored. Application specific integration of coincident power generation and thermal energy supply to satisfy building loads will yield economic metrics that will determine which combinations of prime mover and absorption chiller will succeed in the market place today and which combinations require more research and development.