Optimal Collector Type and Temperature in a Solar Organic Rankine Cycle System for Building-Scale Power Generation in Hot and Humid Climate

The objective of this paper is to determine the optimal solar collector type and temperature of a building-scale power generation system employing solar organic Rankine cycle (ORC) engine for a geothermal air-conditioned net zero-energy building (NZEB) in a hot and humid climate. In the authors' previous work, 11 fluids have been suggested to be employed in solar ORCs that use low-temperature or medium-temperature solar collectors. In this paper, the system requirements needed to maintain the electricity demand of a commercial building have been compared for the 11 suggested fluids. The solar collector loop, building, and geothermal air conditioning system are modeled using TRNSYS with the required input for the ORC system derived from the previous study. The commercial building is located in Pensacola of Florida and is served by grid power. The building has been equipped with two geothermal heat pump units and a vertical closed loop system. The performance of the geothermal system has been monitored for 3 weeks. Monitoring data and available electricity bills of the building have been employed to calibrate the building and geothermal air conditioning system simulation. Simulation has been repeated for Miami and Houston in order to evaluate the effect of the different solar radiations on the system requirements.