Paper No 1166 – Techno-economic comparative analysis of solar thermal collectors and high-temperature heat pumps with PV for industrial steam generation – 14th IEA Heat Pump Conference, Chicago, USA
As industrial heat production is responsible for about 20% of total GHG emissions in Europe, shifting to sustainable sources is inevitable in achieving Paris Agreement goals. This paper focuses on two decarbonisation technologies for industrial process heat supply for multiple locations a) Electricity-driven high-temperature heat pumps powered with photovoltaic (HTHP+PV), as an advanced efficient technology in generating steam, and b) parabolic trough collectors (PTC), which produces heat economically with minimal carbon footprint. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the levelized cost of heat (LCOH) of these technologies to fulfil a comparative techno-economic analysis. A maximum PTC collector's solar fraction limit (SFlimit) is defined to indicate when the LCOH for these two technologies is equal. The evaluation is carried out through the annual energy yield using TRNSYS and MATLAB. The result shows that the design of a PTC system with optimal SF can reach cost parity with hybrid system of HTHP and PV for the locations with medium to high direct normal irradiation locations.