| dc.description.abstract | World energy consumption grows day by day, and so does the environmental concern. Consequently, the use of renewable energies, such as solar energy, is very important to meet the energy demand without damaging the planet. Mostly, it is in developing countries where more solid fuels are used to satisfy the demand for hot water and energy for cooking. Consequently, many people face the harmful effects of the pollutants that these fuels emit in the combustion.
With the aim of solving these problems, this thesis analyzes direct and indirect solar technologies. Most of the study focuses on analyzing and comparing the response and feasibility of three technologies for obtaining hot water. These technologies are a solar thermal system, a PV system, and a PV system with battery support. The analysis begins with the data collected in a project carried out between the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa) and the Institute for Sustainable Technologies of Austria. The financial analysis gives a result of 6, 15, and 10 years of payback for the three cases, respectively. Adding the battery to the PV system, apart from considerably decreasing the payback, makes the LCOH value drop from 0.155 $/kWh to 0.085$/kWh. While in the case of the direct system, the LCOH value remains the lowest, with a value of 0.043$/kWh.
Although the addition of the battery improves the results of the PV system, when it comes to low temperatures, the direct system continues giving better results. | |
