Technoeconomic assessment of a PVT-based solar combined cooling heating and power (S-CCHP) system for the university campus of Bari

In this work we analyse the year - round technoeconomic performance of a solar combined cooling, heating and power (S - CCHP) system that features polymeric flat - box PVT collector s coupled via a thermal store to an absorption chiller . The hourly space heating (SH), cooling and electricity demands of the University Campus of Bari a re used as inputs to a model developed in TRNSYS . Current electricity and gas prices are considered in o rder to estimate the annual cost savings which, together with the system’s investment cost, allow an estimation of its payback time ( PBT ). The results are then compared to a PV system that match es the electricity demand of the Campus (including the electri city required to run the current HVAC system for air - conditioning) . The results show that the main limiting factor for the implementation of the S - CCHP system is the roof - space availability in this application. A system with an installed power of 1. 68 MW p can cover 14% of the SH, 6 6 % of the cooling and 17% of the electrical demands of the Campus. The system’s PBT is estimated at 19 .3 years, which is 3 times higher than the PBT of a PV system of the same installed power , nevertheless, t he proposed S - CCHP sys tem has the potential to displace 1, 17 0 tons CO 2 /year, or 50% more than the equivalent PV solution