Energy performance and economic feasibility of hot spring-based district heating system - A case study

As a versatile platform for integrating renewable energies, District Heating systems (DHSs) offer a pragmatic approach toward an environmentally benign and sustainable future. This paper puts forward the feasibility evaluation of using geothermal hot spring source Heat pumps (HPs) for district heating of a village situated in the north-west of Iran, with a cold mountain climate. Solar collectors are also integrated into the DHS as a supplementary heat source. To this aim, three different renewable-energy-based district heating scenarios, viz. a Ground-Source-HP-based (GSHP), a combined GSHP-flat-plate-solarcollector (GSHP-SFPC), and a combined GSHP-linear-parabolic-solar-collector (GSHP-SLPC), along with a fossil-fuel-based (FFB) district heating scenario are evaluated. In order to make an impartial comparison, all scenarios are first dynamically optimized based on their Life Cycle Cost (LCC). Then the annual energetic, exergetic, economic, and environmental performance of the studied scenarios is evaluated and discussed. The obtained results demonstrated that the GSHP-SLPC system has the lowest LCC; however, it has the highest initial investment cost. Moreover, while the initial investment cost of the GSHP-SFPC is 19% lower than the GSHP-SLPC, its LCC is only 4.4% higher. Also, the total contribution of renewable energy sources is 54.1%, 60.2%, and 67.9% for the GSHP, GSHP-SFPC, and GSHP-SLPC systems, respectively. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.