Assessment and Modeling of Industrial-Scale Solar Thermal System Application in Hungary

With approximately 1.2% growth annually, the industrial sector accounts for 54% of the total consumed energy globally. Most of those facilities use fossil fuels to generate their needs. Renewable energies, mainly solar energy, can play a major role in meeting the global policies of reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Presently, Hungarian researchers exploit more energy from renewable energies such as solar sources, wind, and biomass. Knowing that reducing the carbon emission level is a general tendency in Hungary. This article presents an extensive analysis of the solar thermal system in the central European climate, especially in Hungary. The scope of this study is the low-to-medium heat generation in industries such as pharmaceutical, pulp & paper textile, food processing and beverages. Through all the applications, the heat is consumed in hot water form. Integrating solar thermal technology in the industrial sector depends mainly on solar radiation, conventional fuel prices, available installation area, and the complexity level of integrating the solar system with the existing process. Furthermore, more challenges show up during the integration of economic difficulties. This article analyses the feasibility of providing industrial hot water for small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) in different Hungarian counties. The analysis was performed using T*Sol 5.5 software, and metrological data were obtained by MeteoSyn built-in software. Results indicate that the most suitable region for integrating solar thermal energy was Szeged, Szolnok, and Kecskemet, which supplied 54.89%, 54.16%, and 54.03% of the total heat load for the studied case, respectively. This result accounts for 849.57, 840.25 and 839.27 kWh/m2 of specific generated heat of the solar system. In addition, it results in points that the annual carbon dioxide saved amount is up to 4,442.3 kg and 2,100.7 m3 annual amount of natural gas. In conclusion, Hungary has a potentially attractive market for solar thermal systems to provide industrial hot water for small and medium-sized factories.