Energy and Environmental Assessment of a Hybrid Dish-Stirling Concentrating Solar Power Plant

Stefania Guarino, Alessandro Buscemi, Antonio Messineo and Valerio Lo Brano
Additional contact information
Stefania Guarino: Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Alessandro Buscemi: Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Antonio Messineo: Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, University of Enna “Kore”, Cittadella Universitaria, 94100 Enna, Italy
Valerio Lo Brano: Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 10, 1-20

Abstract: Although the 2019 global pandemic slowed the growing trend of CO 2 concentrations in the atmosphere, it has since resumed its rise, prompting world leaders to accelerate the generation of electricity from renewable sources. The study presented in this paper is focused on the evaluation of the energy and environmental benefits corresponding to the hypothesis of hybridizing a dish-Stirling plant installed on the university campus of Palermo (Italy). These analyses were carried out by means of dynamic simulations based on an accurate energy model validated with the experimental data collected during the measurement campaign that occurred during the period of operation of the reference plant. Assuming different scenarios for managing the production period and different fuels, including renewable fuels, it was found that the annual electricity production of the dish-Stirling system operating in solar mode can be increased by between 47% and 78% when hybridized. This would correspond to an increase in generation efficiency ranging from 4% to 16%. Finally, assuming that the dish-Stirling system is hybridized with renewable combustible gases, this would result in avoided CO 2 emissions of between approximately 1594 and 3953 tons over the 25-year lifetime of the examined plant.

Keywords: solar energy; concentrating solar power; dish-Stirling; hybridization; energy analysis; renewable fuel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/10/6098/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/10/6098/ (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:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:10:p:6098-:d:817689

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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