Enabling Economic and Environmental Sustainability Assessment of Solar Thermal Systems via Temporally and Spatially Explicit Life Cycle Analysis

太阳能冷却和加热建筑物是有前途的替代能源方法。然而，缺乏可靠的工具来评估这些技术的技术、经济效益，特别是环境效益，这是它们广泛部署的关键障碍之一。该项目的总体目标是通过开发一个评估平台来缩小这一知识差距，该平台可以准确量化太阳能热系统的生命周期成本、能源回报和碳足迹。该项目将进行四项研究任务：1)测试和优化安装在普渡大学校园的集成太阳能加热和冷却系统的性能；2)基于模拟对16个不同气候带11种基准建筑类型的系统性能进行预测和评价；3)为模拟系统开发整合时空视角的生命周期清单数据库；4)开发一个生命周期经济和环境可持续性评估平台，该平台集成了实验、建模和数据库开发工作。该项目承诺提供一种新颖，易于使用，基于网络的决策支持工具，促进太阳能建筑技术的广泛部署和向绿色建筑的转变。该项目开发的集成和模块化太阳能冷却/加热系统将是新一代的即插即用系统组件和最优控制策略。该项目将比较应用于美国16个不同气候区的标准化基准建筑的太阳能加热和冷却技术的经济和环境性能，重点关注生命周期成本、能源节约和温室气体减排。该项目将采用时间和空间明确的生命周期评估方法来评估太阳能冷却和加热系统的经济和环境可持续性。通过网络基础设施、远程学习和学生实习，该项目将采用一种新颖的方法，吸引学生（尤其是女学生）参与可持续性工程和绿色建筑研究。研究结果可能广泛应用于太阳能技术产业。布鲁斯·k·汉密尔顿10年6月16日

Solar cooling and heating for buildings are promising alternative energy approaches. However, the lack of reliable tools to evaluate the technical, economic, and especially the environmental benefits of these technologies presents one of the critical barriers to their widespread deployment. The overarching goal of this project is to close this knowledge gap by developing an evaluation platform that accurately quantifies the life cycle cost, energy payback, and carbon footprint of solar thermal systems. Four research tasks will be conducted in the project: 1) testing and optimizing performance of an integrated solar heating and cooling system installed on the Purdue campus; 2) predicting and evaluating system performance for 11 benchmark building types in 16 distinct climate zones based on simulation; 3) developing life cycle inventory database that integrates temporal and spatial perspectives for systems simulated; 4) developing a life cycle economic and environmental sustainability assessment platform, which integrates experimental, modeling, and database development efforts. This project promises to deliver a novel, easy-to-use, web-based decision support tool that facilitates the wide deployment of solar building technologies and the move toward green buildings. The integrated and modularized solar cooling/heating systems developed in the project will be a new generation with plug-play system components and optimal control strategies. The project will compare the economic and environmental performance of solar heating and cooling technologies applied to standardized benchmark buildings in 16 distinct climate zones in the U.S. focusing on life cycle cost, energy savings, and greenhouse gas emission reduction. The project will apply a temporally and spatially explicit life cycle assessment approach to evaluate the economic and environmental sustainability of solar cooling and heating systems. Through cyber-infrastructure, distance learning, and student internships, the project will implement a novel approach to engage students, especially women students, in sustainability engineering and green building research. The findings resulting from the research may be widely used in the solar technology industry.Bruce K. Hamilton6/16/10