New Model Makes Industrial Renewables Decision Making Easier

The majority of manufacturers would like to become more sustainable. It often benefits the business by using power that they have generated themselves. However, green technology often has a cost attached, usually a large upfront one to buy and install the technology. There is also a question of which type of renewable energy is best for the specific industrial process. The decision making process is complex and non-linear with many variables, including costs, power inputs and outputs, and even choosing if one renewable technology would bring better benefits than another. Any answer must also must account for fluctuations in generation, since renewables are reliant on conditions like the sun and wind. The technologies are available, but companies still need to spend time and resources on a rigorous evaluation before taking the leap.

That decision making process may become easier now as University of Conneticut engineering researchers have developed a dynamical model to help companies determine if renewables make economic sense. Pratt & Whitney Associate Professor in Advanced Systems Engineering Matthew Stuber worked with two undergraduate students and co-lead authors Justin Rastinejad ’22 (ENG) and Sloane Putnam ’22 (ENG) answer this question in their recent paper published in Renewable Energy.

The new paper looks at incorporating renewable solar energy for manufacturing and determining if it would be feasible to use in its processes. It covers both solar generation and solar thermal energy, where the sun’s rays are concentrated to heat fluid in pipes to be stored or transferred further in the form of heat. Solar thermal generation has potential for use in many industrial applications.

“Most manufacturing processes require heat in some form, they might be using steam to sterilize or drive something, or they might use other kinds of thermal sources in their manufacturing process,” says Stuber. “Manufacturing is a huge chunk of the economy and it’s a huge energy consumer. Recent releases from the Department of Energy announce projects to electrify everything.”

Solar thermal energy makes more sense for industrial use in some applications. Rather than converting solar heat to thermal energy and then transforming it back to electrical energy to power heating, the original thermal energy could be used. The researchers then set out to see if solar power generated on-site was a feasible option.

A formal analysis was made on a hypothetical manufacturing process that requires heat in different regions of the United States, including California, Massachusetts, and Colorado, to test different solar resource availability and holistically assess economic viability. The researchers then created a mathematical model.

“The main takeaway is that batteries are extremely expensive, and they don’t make sense in the manufacturing sector right now, but solar thermal wins. If you have a manufacturing process that needs heat within a certain temperature range, solar thermal is the better choice,” Says Stuber.

The model is available on GitHub to be used by anyone hoping to perform their own assessments. Stuber says this model can be helpful not just for companies but for anyone looking to do this type of rigorous analysis.