Economics of solar powered refrigeration transport applications

Author

Bahaj, A.S. ; James, P.A.B.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Civil & Environ. Eng., Univ. of Southampton, UK

fYear

2002

fDate

19-24 May 2002

Firstpage

1561

Lastpage

1564

Abstract

The application of photovoltaics (PV) to refrigeration for the distribution of chilled supermarket produce has been pioneered in the United Kingdom (UK). Weather conditions in the UK are such that the power produced by a PV system is in phase with the refrigeration load for most transported chilled product applications. An economic assessment of PV chilled delivery has been undertaken and compared with that of diesel powered refrigeration units. The analysis indicates that a payback time of 18 years for a PV refrigerated supermarket trailer can be achieved. Further analysis is presented for other chilled applications of airport catering supply and household milk delivery. In each case the typical delivery profile, energy loads and possible photovoltaic system are described.

Keywords

economics; goods distribution; photovoltaic power systems; refrigeration; transportation; PV chilled delivery; PV system; Solartrailer system; United Kingdom; aircraft catering uplift vehicles; airport catering supply; chilled supermarket produce distribution; delivery profile; diesel powered refrigeration; economics; energy loads; household milk delivery; refrigeration load; solar powered refrigeration transport applications; Batteries; Costs; Environmental economics; Inverters; Photovoltaic cells; Power engineering and energy; Power generation economics; Refrigeration; Temperature; Vehicles;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2002. Conference Record of the Twenty-Ninth IEEE

ISSN

1060-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7471-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2002.1190911

Filename

1190911