Assessment of potential renewable energy alternatives for a typical greenhouse aquaponics in Himalayan Region of Nepal

Samvid Parajuli, Tek Narayan Bhattarai, Shiva Gorjian, Meththika Vithanage and Shukra Raj Paudel

Applied Energy, 2023, vol. 344, issue C, No S0306261923006347

Abstract: Greenhouse aquaponics (GA) can serve as a sustainable food production method, potentially improving food and nutrition security in resource-constrained and hostile climatic zones such as Nepal's Himalayan region. Energy concerns, however, are one of the major barriers to GA adoption in this region. There is a lack of comprehensive energy demand analysis for GA operations. Therefore, in this study, an energy model for GA based on a quasi-static energy balancing technique was developed to estimate energy demand for the Himalayan region. The study was conducted in 19 districts with varied GA dimensions, and a linear-model was fitted to predict yearly energy consumption. Thereafter, relations to estimate the capacity of PV systems for supplying the required energy were devised. Eventually, this study proposes potential energy management strategies to reduce dependency on a single energy source, reduce energy loss, and enhance resilience to energy concerns. Findings suggest, heating the GA is a major energy concern, accounting up to 85% of the overall energy requirement. Thermal evaluation reveals that conduction and convection losses are the most significant, contributing up to 29.5% of total energy consumption. Moreover, this study testifies the effectiveness of thermal energy storage devices in achieving significant energy savings. The proposed energy management strategies can serve as a decision-making tool for optimizing the design and operation of GA. Furthermore, this research serves as a blueprint for addressing aquaponics related energy challenges worldwide, especially in areas with similar climatic conditions, such as the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region.

Keywords: Aquaponics; Greenhouse; Himalayan region; Renewable energy; Quasi-static model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261923006347
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:appene:v:344:y:2023:i:c:s0306261923006347

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.121270

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().