7 replies to this topic

[jasserEnv]

I saw this link and found it interesting. When you look at how much energy we consume and how much of it is for the purposes of generating heat, it makes sense to try to capture as much of it as possible and reuse it or turn it back into electricity. Talk about a direct way of reducing dependence on foreign sources of energy.

From what I have read in the past, Europe is far further ahead than we are in this respect. But, when I think of heat energy from industrial processes, heat energy from energy conversion, heat energy from air conditioning and computer farms that could all be reused or converted, it would offer serious gains to try to reclaim this energy instead of dumping it into the environment.

http://www.enn.com/w...e/article/43961

[eds]

Israel’s ZenithSolar, whose unique watercooled HCPV systems also supply significant amounts of hot water at 75°-80°C or more, hot enough for industrial as well as household uses.   Now that the 3-year-old company’s 250kW demonstration system at Kibbutz Yavne in Israel has been up and running for about 18 months, a half dozen other customers are stepping up to try the systems— perhaps a sign of the growing maturity of the HCPV sector.  Zenith started shipping its first products to projects outside of Israel in March. It now has projects in the pipeline in Australia, Gulf states, Asia and Italy for various applications that need a lot of hot water ranging from:
. . . hospitals to
. . . utility central heating plant to
. . . water desalinization projects.

CEO Roy Segev says the company expects to ship a total of 1.2MW by the end of the year.  These wattage figures totals include
. . . roughly 1/3rd direct production of electricity,
. . . roughly 2/3rds the thermal energy of the hot water.

[jasserEnv]

I do like the efforts to enable collection of energy for heating water as well. The more we can get when we capture the energy in the first place, the more ways we can avoid using other forms of energy for the purpose. However, I think one of the important factors with this approach is that it means energy collection has to happen within close proximity to energy usage. This conflicts with the numerous approaches trying to create massive solar farms in the desert and transmit the power to distant towns. I would very much like to see more focus to generating the energy where it is consumed for efficiency purposes.

[zararina]

It will be really great to know and be able to utilize heat generated through different industries and processes that are also used in creating electricity. It was a good idea to reuse heat energy than just let it be spread out.

[eds]

ZenithSolar's high concentration photovoltaic systems are suitable for numerous market applications.
Due to its high electricity output and high temperature output, ZenithSolar is focusing on customers and projects that will be able to directly benefit from high temperature thermal heat for hot water needs.
ZenithSolar systems will be positioned close to its customers to enable its customers to extract as much value out of the systems as possible.
 Municipality.jpg   44.27K   1 downloads
Municipality: One of the markets on which ZenithSolar focuses is gated communities such as Kibbutz Yavne. Real estate developers of gated communities are interested in providing high quality and centralized services to the residences - including electricity and hot water.
 Desalination.jpg   44.52K   1 downloads
Distillation & Desalination: ZenithSolar Z20 is ideally suited to support Multiple-Effect Distillation (MED) Desalination providing heating required to efficiently separated into clean drinking water from salty or brackish water.
 Industrial.jpg   27.32K   1 downloads
Industrial: ZenithSolar has identified the industrial and process markets as one of the largest heat consumers. A challenge faced by energy providers to industrial sites is the general real estate constraints.
Since ZenithSolar provides a very high output of energy in a small, modular package, the industrial markets are a very suitable vertical focus. ZenithSolar plans to launch a commercial pilot site at a large industrial plant during 2011
 Hospitality.jpg   37.42K   1 downloads
Hospitality: ZenithSolar has identified hospitality markets - including hotels, resorts, hospitals, and other vertical markets - as a large and receptive target.
Due to the high and constant need for high temperature hot water in those markets - the ZenithSolar system has been identified as an ideal clean energy solution for the hospitality market.
 AirConditioning.jpg   34.29K   1 downloads
Solar Air-Conditioning: ZenithSolar system provides the ideal solution to solar air-conditioning. The Z20 system delivers high temperature hot water with minimal losses making the Z20 system unique and superior to competitive offerings. Z20 systems can provide hot water at 90°C to an absorption chiller that delivers water at 7° C. ZenithSolar control systems will keep the water temperature to the chiller constant, regardless of the DNI conditions. In optimal conditions, each Z20 system can generate 70kWh/day, which can be transformed to 50kWh of cooling or operating 5kW air handling unit for 10 hours daily. The cooling can serve new constructions or to be added to existing central air condition systems.

Source: zenithsolar

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Great input everyone!

[jasserEnv]

I do like the idea of colocation of collectors and consuming devices, but only one of the images seems to show rooftop installation. To me, that is where the real utilization benefits arise. Taking up space just to put in a whole bunch of concentrators increases sprawl and leaves less land for nature meaning the solution creates problems in its implementation. If we could have city scapes where the tops of buildings were all collectors harnessing solar energy for electricity and hot water, I think we would have a far greater self reliance in terms of energy production.

[eds]

Integrated in a surrounding vineyard for optimal land usage,
. . . the Z20 units in Kibbutz Yavne are producing today
. . . 250 Kwp Combined Heat and Power with only
. . . 352 sqm of solar mirrored dishes.

According to Hanoch Pnini, Kibbutz Yavne member and Project Coordinator
. . . “ZenithSolar field has been positive and exciting,
. . . we significantly reduced the hot water oil heating bill and
. . . are now selling electricity at a profit!”

Source: Yavne

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