Performance, economic, and environmental analysis of a novel hybrid photovoltaic/thermal and ground-source heat pump system for a multi-zone sports and administrative complex in a cold climate

This paper introduces a novel cycle to supply the demands of a huge case study incorporating eight thermal zones with sports and administrative applications for space heating, space cooling, domestic hot water, and electricity. Choosing this complex is one of the most important innovations of the current study. A combination of photovoltaic/thermals and ground-source heat pumps are connected to the storage tanks, heaters, heat exchangers, and some other elements to provide energy for the mentioned buildings. This cycle is simulated numerically using TRNSYS 16, and the amounts of heating and cooling loads of the buildings are estimated via TRNBuild 3.0. The cycle is then discussed to investigate its capability of supplying the demands over the period of 20 years; reaching the coefficient of performance and life cycle cost of 2.866 and 164,451 €, respectively, with less than 0.03 °C drop in ground temperature at the end of the given period. In addition, as an important novelty, defining a number of scenarios provides a thorough examination of the important parameters of the cycle, including environmental, operational, and economic features under different conditions. This comprehensive analysis shows that adding winter holidays or insulating the walls of the buildings are the best ways of improving the system’s performance. Lastly, the operation of the system in Iran is also compared with some other countries; showing that installing this system is not economically suitable in Iran. Portugal with a payback time of 3.84 years is the best country to install the designed cycle.