Development and assessment of a new agrivoltaic‐biogas energy system for sustainable communities

Abstract

Summary In this study, a unique energy system integrated with an agrivoltaic plant, a biogas production and utilization facility, and a community‐based energy system is analyzed in order to fully cover the needs of electricity, biogas, heat, and cooling for a community. The bifacial photovoltaic modules with a high structure are considered in this design, where they cover the sugarcane field as the agrivoltaic system. Both sugarcane and cow manure are considered and used to generate biogas. An integrated energy system is proposed to meet the electricity, heating, and cooling requirements of a community in a case study. The capacities of the components are determined according to a community load selected for a case study with more than 34 000 people living in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. A biogas‐based combined cycle with two stages of the Rankine cycle, as well as a bifacial photovoltaic‐based system, are used to generate electricity. The excess heat is recovered and used to cover the heating loads of the community for greenhouse and food dryer, as well as in a lithium bromide absorption refrigeration cycle to provide cooling. The first and second laws of thermodynamics are used with the mass, energy, entropy, and exergy balance equations to analyze and evaluate the system. A time‐dependent analysis is carried out to provide more insightful details about the system for each hour throughout the whole year. The experimental data for the biogas production system and actual meteorological data are considered with commercially available component and unit specifications to provide more realistic results. An 8 MWp of PV plant with 415 MWp of a biogas power plant as well as 105 MWp of high‐ and low‐pressure steam turbines can meet 100% of 92 GWh nonthermal electricity, 63 GWh cooling, and 13 GWh heating loads in a year. The overall energy and exergy efficiencies of the overall system are found to be 33.64% and 22.96% under average ambient conditions and average load requirements.