Project SAGE: Solar Assisted Gas Energy. Interim Report Number Two, Ccms Solar Energy Pilot Study

摘要

Project SAGE is a four-phased plan to define the equipment design, cost requirements, government policies and initiatives, market requirements, and necessary institutional changes for the successful commercial application of solar assisted gas energy (SAGE) water heating. Project SAGE developed out of a multidisciplinary effort focused on the broad problem of introducing solar energy in the U.S. building industry on a scale which could have a significant impact on the demand for fossil fuels. The regional character of the building industry led to focusing the effort in Southern California, one of the largest and fastest growing building markets in the world. Residential water heating is a significant consumer of energy in the Southern California area, consuming 27 percent of residential energy, or 6 percent of primary energy. Water heating in apartments was found to be the least expensive application of solar energy and therefore the most likely to achieve commercial use in the near term. There are three installations in Southern California which are being evaluated in this Project SAGE report: the pilot plant in Pasadena and two field test installations--an existing apartment building (The Timbers) in El Toro and a new apartment building in Upland. Measured thermal performance data is only available for the pilot plant and 29 days at The Timbers. System cost information isavailable from both field tests plus the estimates from the pilot plant. Therefore, system thermal performance is given for just the pilot plant and The Timbers while the economic analysis contains information from all three installations. (ERA citation 03:017269)