Towards the Optimal Design and Control of Solar-biomass Heating Networks for Greenhouse Applications: Methodology and Preliminary Results
Abstract
This paper focuses on the optimal sizing and control of solar-biomass heating networks to be used in greenhouse environments. The methodology employed is a bi-level optimization strategy in which the lower layer, which is based on the energy hubs concept, is responsible for the optimal dispatch of the heating network, trying to reduce the operating costs while meeting demand. The upper layer includes a surrogate optimization algorithm in charge of performing the optimal sizing of the heating network to minimize the investment and long-term operating costs. Besides, this optimization problem includes some constraints such as the minimum desired solar fraction. A case study based on real facilities located in Almería (Southeast Spain) is employed as an application example in order to show the promising outcomes achieved with the proposed methodology. The preliminary results are analyzed in economic terms by using the payback time and levelized cost of energy.