The contribution of PV and thermal solar plants in CCHP systems for the reduction of costs and GHG emissions in the residential sector

Distributed Generation based on CCHP systems offer the possibility to integrate several energy conversion technologies exploiting RES. However, integration increases the degrees of freedom number of the decisional variables for the minimization of both costs and GHG emissions. In this paper a multi-variable and multi-objective optimization model has been proposed and applied to the household sector. The model considers a system composed of a CCHP plant, based on an internal combustion engine, an absorption heat pump, and photovoltaic and thermal solar collectors, integrated through a thermal energy storage plenum.