Fuel Consumption Minimization in Greenhouses by Employing an Innovative System Taking Advantage of Solar and Geothermal Energies

Abstract

Replacing fossil flues by renewable and sustainable energies have been the concern of scientists working in this area over the recent decades. Furthermore, greenhouses play a key role in producing various crops year-round and in bohemian climates. For this objective, the greenhouses employ heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to provide the favourable conditions for the considered crop. At the moment, generally, the heating demand of greenhouses is provided by air heaters which burn gasoil as their main fuel. In this work, an innovative combined configuration of solar-geothermal heat has been proposed in order to reduce the amount of fuel consumption in the greenhouses. A comprehensive thermo economic analysis has been accomplished to demonstrate the proposed system effectiveness. The economic survey approach at this step was Net Present Value (NPV). The NPV results prove the super satisfactory performance of the proposed system with a payback period of 6.5 years.