Techno-Economic Analysis and Multi-Objective Optimization of Cross-Flow Wind Turbines for Smart Building Energy...

Area of Science:

• Renewable Energy Systems
• Building Energy Efficiency
• Sustainable Technology Integration

Background:

• Buildings represent a significant portion of energy consumption.
• Integrating small-scale wind turbines offers a potential solution for decentralized energy generation.
• Crossflow wind turbines (CFWTs) are an emerging technology for urban environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a technical, economic, and environmental assessment of CFWT integration into building energy systems.
• To evaluate different system configurations, including heat pumps, battery storage, and grid interaction.
• To determine optimal system designs for residential buildings in Germany and Iran.

Main Methods:

• Utilized triobjective optimization with the Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II).
• Employed Capital Budgeting Analysis (CBA) with payback period (PP), net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), and profitability index (PI) for economic evaluation.
• Modeled two residential building scenarios in Germany and Iran.

Main Results:

• Optimal integration scenarios and system configurations varied significantly between Germany and Iran due to differing energy market regulations and prices.
• Economic viability in Iran is highly sensitive to CFWT costs and local electricity tariffs.
• Achieving a Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of $0.6 kWh⁻¹ in Iran necessitates a substantial reduction in CFWT costs or a significant increase in electricity prices.

Conclusions:

• CFWTs show potential for building energy supply, but economic feasibility is context-dependent.
• Policy and market structures critically influence the viability of renewable energy integration in buildings.
• Further cost reductions for CFWT technology are essential for widespread adoption, particularly in markets with low energy tariffs like Iran.