Fostering Renewables into the Cold Chain: How Photovoltaics Affect Design and Performance of Refrigerated Automated Warehouses

Antonella Meneghetti, Fabio Dal Magro and Patrizia Simeoni
Additional contact information
Antonella Meneghetti: Polytechnic Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy
Fabio Dal Magro: Polytechnic Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy
Patrizia Simeoni: Polytechnic Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 5, 1-20

Abstract: In the industrial food supply chain, cold storage is one of the most important processes where there is a huge but still unused potential for employing renewable energy technologies. This paper analyses how the integration of rooftop photovoltaics affects the design and performance of refrigerated automated warehouses, which are becoming the preferred choice for frozen food storage facilities. The problem is modelled and solved by means of Constraint Programming. Results for the reference case in north-eastern Italy show that photovoltaic installation can lead to both yearly total cost and energy savings. Simulations highlight how design and performance of the refrigerated automated warehouse strictly depend on supply chain decision variables. PV integration offers supply chain managers more opportunities to act on the storage temperature and the incoming product temperatures strictly related to upstream and downstream stages of the whole cold chain. Attention should be paid to system throughput, which presents an intermediate range for which the design optimization of volume and surfaces reduces the convenience of PV integration. Simulations on facility locations reveal how different climate conditions affect the economic and environmental performance of the refrigerated warehouse, as well as country specific carbon intensity and energy price.

Keywords: renewable energy; photovoltaic; sustainable food supply chain; refrigerated warehouse; AS/RS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/5/1029/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/5/1029/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:11:y:2018:i:5:p:1029-:d:142830

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().