The aim of this work is to present the energy, exergy and thermoeconomic analysis of a hypothetical solar air heating plant located in Zaragoza, Spain. The plant consists mainly of four parts: 1) a field of solar collectors, 2) a water tank storage, 3) a heat exchanger where heat energy is transferred from the collectors to the water storage tank, and 4) a water to air heater heat exchanger. Circulating pumps, pipes and fan have also been considered. In a previous work of the authors the design variables of the system were optimally determined from a conventional economic approach.

In this paper, a productive structure for the plant has been proposed and energy losses and exergy destructions (or irreversibility) have been calculated. Energy and exergy efficiencies have also been determined for each of the components and the whole system. Moreover, the costs of internal flows have been dynamically calculated for the time period under consideration. The very specific features of solar heating systems: thermal energy storage as well as continuous variation of solar radiation and energy demand (seasonal and throughout the day) impose important difficulties, which in our opinion have not been deeply studied yet in current methodologies.

The major conclusions are: i) energy, exergy and thermoeconomic analyses following a dynamic approach is very sensitive to the reference environment (ambient air temperature), ii) the same productive structure can and must be used for all of them, iii) solar energy should be considered as a high quality source and thermodynamic efficiency of solar heating plants is very low (2.5% in our case), and iv) a dynamic analysis of the process of cost formation through the different components reveals interesting and valuable information about the physics and economics of solar energy conversion systems.

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