Energetic and exergetic studies of a multigenerational solar-geothermal system

A new multigenerational integrated geothermal-solar system is presented in this paper to produce electrical power, cooling, space heating, hot water and heat for industrial use. Energy and exergy analyses are carried out to show the performance of the system and compare the results of single generation, cogeneration, trigeneration and multigeneration systems. A parametric study is conducted to investigate the effects of operating conditions and environment parameters on the system performance. The energy efficiencies for single-generation and multigeneration systems are found to be 16.4% and 78%, respectively, while the exergy efficiencies become 26.2% and 36.6%, respectively. The results show that 75% of the exergy destruction takes place in the solar collector system. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.