The Potential of Solar Air Heating in the Turkish Industrial Sector

Abstract

Transpired solar collector (TSC) systems are simple solutions for the preheating of ventilation air with solar energy. Their performance is a function of several environmental factors, so the climatic conditions of the location play an important role. In this paper, the effect of different climatic zones on the thermal performance of the TSC is investigated. To exclude other sources of influence, the same reference industrial building is examined in four Turkish locations (Antalya, Istanbul, Ankara and Sivas) representing different climatic conditions. RETScreen simulation is carried out for all four regions to obtain the drop of conventional heating requirement in case absorber azimuth of 0°, 45° and 90°. To illustrate the performance, temperature rise, heating energy savings and annual solar fraction are presented. Generally, it can be stated that a location with cold climate and high solar radiation at the same time benefits most from the use of a TSC system. A mathematical correlation has been found showing the solar fraction's dependence on solar radiation and heating degree days. Finally, simulation results have been compared to a set of measurement data from an industrial building's TSC system near Istanbul.