Energy, Exergy, Environmental Impact and Economic (4E) Analysis of ET-CPC-Powered Solar Domestic Water Heating System

Abstract World energy demand is increasing continuously; consequently, the environmental impact forces towards utilizing renewable energy resources with efficient and optimized cost-performance conversion technologies. Therefore in this study, an analytical model is developed to propose the energy, exergy, environmental impact and economic (4E) analysis of the water heating system at Jaipur (India) with evacuated tube compound parabolic concentrator ET-CPC field of the total area of 81m2. The model results were validated with the experimental data, and a good agreement has prevailed. After that, the model is used to perform parametric studies on the effect of operating and meteorological parameters on the productivity and performance of the system. Moreover, the system’s performance, environmental impact and economic aspects have been investigated and compared under different meteorological conditions at four different locations in Rajasthan (India) using TMY2 weather data files. Results clarified that Jodhpur receives the highest solar radiation intensity from these four locations. Consequently, the results indicate the highest annual energy and exergy with the value of 79.72 MWh and 9.311 MWh followed by Jaisalmer, Barmer, and Jaipur. The economic analysis results clarified that the simple payback period ranged from 4.5 to 4.75 years and the discounted payback period ranged from 6.6 to 7 years based on a 6% discount rate. At the same time, the Levelized Cost of Heating (LCOH) ranges from 1.62 to 1.72 INR/kWh of heat compared to closest with CNG as fuel ranging from 4.39 to 4.41 INR/kWh for specified locations. The internal rate of return is reported to be 16.76, 16.82, 16.77, and 16.75% for Barmer, Jodhpur, Jaipur, and Jaisalmer respectively, and savings of 74400, 78125, 75371, and 73813 kg of CO2 emission to the environment.