Assessment of the Relative Benefits of Solar Energy Systems for Application to a Mixed-Load Community

摘要

The results of an investigation of the relative benefits of both present-day and advanced technology solar energy systems are presented. Solar Total Energy (STE) systems, Small Power (SP) systems, and Solar Process Heat (SPH) systems designed for a mixed-load community are considered. The methodology used in sizing these systems is discussed and the before-tax benefit-to-cost ratio of these systems is used to evaluate their relative merits for two different energy inflation rate scenarios. The results indicate that both present-day and advanced technology STE systems are more economical than their SP system counterparts because they are able to sell a much larger fraction of the total energy collected by their collector fields. Since they also produce electricity (which is presently more valuable than thermal energy) with approximately the same size fields as their SPH counterparts, STE systems are more economical than SPH systems. (ERA citation 04:049621)