Design and analysis of an integrated concentrated solar and wind energy system with storage

This study analyzes a renewable energy-driven innovative multigeneration system, in which wind and solar energy sources are utilized in an efficient way to generate several useful commodities such as hydrogen, oxygen, desalted water, space cooling, and space heating along with electricity. A 1-km² heliostat field is considered to concentrate the solar light onto a spectrum splitter, where the light spectrum is separated into two portions as reflected and transmitted to be used as the energy source in the concentrated solar power (CSP) and concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) receivers, respectively. As such, CSP and CPV systems are integrated. Wind energy is proposed for generating electricity (146 MW) or thermal energy (138 MW) to compensate the energy need of the multigeneration system when there is insufficient solar energy. In addition, multiple commodities, 46 MW of electricity, 12 m³/h of desalted water, and 69 MW of cooling, are generated using the Rankine cycle and the rejected heat from its condenser. Further, the heat generated on CPV cells is recovered for efficient photovoltaic conversion and utilized in the space heating (34 MW) and proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer (239 kg/h) for hydrogen production. The energy and exergy efficiencies of the overall system are calculated as 61.3% and 47.8%, respectively. The exergy destruction rates of the main components are presented to identify the potential improvements of the system. Finally, parametric studies are performed to analyze the effect of changing parameters on the exergy destruction rates, production rates, and efficiencies.