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This article was published in ASHRAE Journal, February 2018. Copyright 2018 ASHRAE. Posted at www.ashrae.org. This article may not be copied and/or distributed
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Prospects of Powering a
Refrigerated Warehouse
With Renewable Energy
BY DOUGLAS REINDL, PH.D., P.E., FELLOW ASHRAE; MARC CLAAS; JAKE DENISON
Although net zero energy buildings have been successfully demonstrated at residen-
tial and small to moderate commercial building scales, they have not been demon-
strated for more energy-intensive operations such as food production or large refrig-
erated storage facilities. The reason is simple: residential and low-rise commercial
buildings have the benefit of considerably lower energy use intensity (i.e., annual
electric energy required per unit area of the building) when compared to a refriger-
ated facility.
Figure 1 shows the comparative energy use intensity the facility footprint that might use rooftop photovoltaic
of various facility types including: a food production solar alone.
facility with refrigerated storage, a health-care facil- The analysis presented in this article will show the
ity, a large cold storage warehouse, a commercial office magnitude of land area required to power such a facil-
building, and a single-family residential dwelling. The ity. We also quantify the costs for deploying sufficient
high energy use intensity of a food production facility renewable energy generation to achieve net zero perfor-
significantly increases the degree of difficulty and costs mance; however, land costs are not included in the eco-
for achieving net zero energy performance. One factor nomic analysis due to the significant variation in prices
that increases the degree of difficulty in implement- based on location.
ing sufficient renewable energy production on-site is
the large area required to deploy sufficient renewable Refrigerated Facility Overview
energy generation to power a food process or refriger- The analysis presented in this article is based on
ated storage facility. This area is significantly larger than an actual refrigerated warehouse comprised of two
Douglas Reindl, Ph.D., P.E., is professor and director of the Industrial Refrigeration Consortium (IRC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Marc Claas is a researcher at the
Industrial Refrigeration Consortium. Jake Denison is a product development engineer with Evapco.
10 A S H R A E J O U R N A L a s h r a e . o r g F E B R U A R Y 2 0 18
TECHNICAL FEATURE
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 18 a s h r a e . o r g A S H R A E J O U R N A L 11
TECHNICAL FEATURE
∑ in=1C AfterTax,n
C AfterTax,n +
LCOE =
(1 + d nom )n
Qn
∑ in=1
(1 + d real )n
where
h = 25 years
CAfterTax,n = cash flow after taxes in year n [$]
dreal = 0.082
Q n = 0.025
dnom = (1+dreal)(1+e)
The variable dnom represents the nominal discount rate
and dreal represents the real discount rate. The parameter and the price of land was not included due to wide varia-
e is the inflation rate assumed at 2.5%. Since the nominal tions in real estate values and the relatively small impact
discount rates vary, the LCOE results are shown paramet- that land acquisition will have on total installation cost.4
rically for discount rates of 2%, 4%, and 6%. The default In addition to the above-mentioned economic param-
system pricing data in SAM were used for this analysis, eters, location information and the associated estimates
12 A S H R A E J O U R N A L a s h r a e . o r g F E B R U A R Y 2 0 18
TECHNICAL FEATURE
of resources (incident solar radiation) are required. TABLE 2 Madison, Wis., net zero PV results and levelized cost of electricity
Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) data is used in the (LCOE).
PV analysis and two different locations: Madison, Wis., Results
and Phoenix are evaluated. Figure 3 (Page 12) shows the ANNUAL ENERGY INSTALLED COST CAPACITY FACTOR LAND AREA
GENERATED (KWH) ($) (%) (ACRES)
distribution of PV resource for the United States, noting
more resource availability for PV in Phoenix compared 7,834,734 9,133,249 15.7 25.1
to Madison. This resource variability creates further LCOE With Varying Nominal Discount Rates
economic differences between locations. Figure 4 shows DISCOUNT RATE (%) NOMINAL LCOE (¢/KWH)
25,000
comprised of 18,669 solar modules with 19
20,000
(kWh/day)
14 A S H R A E J O U R N A L a s h r a e . o r g F E B R U A R Y 2 0 18
TECHNICAL FEATURE
Table 3 also shows the LCOE over the same range of TABLE 4 Madison, Wis., net zero wind energy-based results and LCOE.
discount rates as considered for Madison. Because the Results
annual electrical power for the facility can be met with a ANNUAL ENERGY INSTALLED COST CAPACITY FACTOR LAND AREA
GENERATED (KWH) ($) (%) (ACRES)
smaller solar system, the LCOE is less than the Madison
case. At a 2% discount rate, the LCOE is a competitive 8,370,403 19,141,380 31.9 66.7
8.55 cents per kWh. LCOE With Varying Nominal Discount Rates
Figure 5 shows the monthly-average daily electrical DISCOUNT RATE (%) NOMINAL LCOE (¢/KWH)
45,000
the spacing between each Actual Use Madison, Wis. Phoenix
40,000
of the wind turbines such 35,000
30,000
that potential energy loss
25,000
of downwind turbines 20,000
from upwind shadowing 15,000
is mitigated. NREL recom- 10,000
5,000
mends a minimum fall 0
radius of five to 10 rotor Feb. 14 Mar. 14 May 14 Jul. 14 Aug. 14 Oct. 14 Nov. 14 Jan. 15
diameters to optimize
energy production.8 The results for the wind turbine life-cycle cost of electricity (also in Table 4). For compari-
options below are based on a fall radius of eight rotor son to PV, the average cost of electricity for the 25-year
diameters. life is 21.15 cents per kWh for the 2% discount rate.
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 18 a s h r a e . o r g A S H R A E J O U R N A L 15
TECHNICAL FEATURE
Consumption (kWh/day)
range of discount rates as considered for 25,000
Daily Power
Madison. 20,000
When considering wind turbine power 15,000
10,000
production, both locations struggled during
5,000
the hottest months of the year, when facil- 0
ity electrical demand peaks, as evidenced by Feb. 14 Mar. 14 May 14 Jul. 14 Aug. 14 Oct. 14 Nov. 14 Jan. 15
reviewing the results shown in Figure 6 (Page Actual Use PV Simulation Wind Simulation
15). This mismatch of facility demand and
on-site renewable energy production puts
added stress on the electric utility since they are relied TABLE 6 Madison, Wis., net zero hybrid power results and LCOE.
25,000
Hybrid Renewable Energy System Results for 20,000
Madison
(kWh/day)
15,000
Based on the PV simulation results, the
10,000
refrigerated facility located in Madison would
5,000
benefit from supplemental energy genera-
0
tion during the winter months when the day Feb. 14 Mar. 14 May 14 Jul. 14 Aug. 14 Oct. 14 Nov. 14 Jan. 15
length is short and the solar resource com-
Actual Use Hybrid Simulation
paratively low. A combined PV-wind turbine
case is evaluated where most of the power
generation is derived from the PV modules, as they were the simulation shows the installed cost is about 28%
capable of generating most of the electrical demand year- higher than the cost of only installing PV panels, but this
round. The same PV modules and inverters were selected, arrangement provides added reliability with two renew-
but the PV system design was scaled back. The PV system able energy generation sources available. All relevant
was designed to generate 4,000 kWdc, translating to 13,104 parameters for the hybrid power generation simulation
modules. This part of the on-site electricity generation located in Madison are summarized in Table 6. The addi-
requires 17.6 acres (7.1 ha) of land to install. The design of tion of wind energy production enabled an increase in
the wind energy generation system includes one turbine the capacity factor compared to PV-alone; however, the
with a nameplate capacity of 810 kW. This single wind tur- increased system cost translates into a higher overall
bine only requires enough land to satisfy required offsets. LCOE, as also shown in Table 6.
Using the same weather data and economic parameters, Figure 8 shows the hybrid power generation system
16 A S H R A E J O U R N A L a s h r a e . o r g F E B R U A R Y 2 0 18
TECHNICAL FEATURE
design discussed above creates an annual trend that is TABLE 7 Phoenix net zero hybrid power results and LCOE.
much more in phase with the actual demand of the facil-
Results
ity. The maximum rate of energy deficit with the hybrid
ANNUAL ENERGY INSTALLED COST CAPACITY FACTOR LAND AREA
system is only 3,090 kWh/day, compared to 4,780 kWh/ GENERATED (KWH) ($) (%) (ACRES)
day with the PV system, and 10,460 kWh/day with the 7,934,221 11,658,626 20.1 18
wind turbine system. LCOE With Varying Discount Rates
DISCOUNT RATE (%) NOMINAL LCOE (¢/KWH)
Hybrid Renewable Energy System Results for Phoenix 2 16.65
The hybrid system design for Phoenix emphasized PV 4 16.94
power generation due to the greater solar resource there 6 17.24
with supplemental energy derived from wind turbines to
produce more reliable time-dependent power
FIGURE 9 Simulated power generation using hybrid design compared to actual facility demand in
generation. This specific design uses one wind Phoenix.
turbine, coupled with 11,788 PV modules and
30,000
12 power inverters. Table 7 summarizes the
Consumption (kWh/day)
25,000
hybrid system characteristics in Phoenix, and
20,000
Daily Power
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TECHNICAL FEATURE
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