[esp-r] Re: ESP-r capabilities

[Jon Hand]

A recent question:

::I'm interested to know if ESP-r can model wind turbines, photovoltaics, fuel
::cells and fuel cell heat recovery, water-side economizer (cooling tower heat
::recovery), absorption chillers.

Can the question be a bit more specific in terms of 

a) what aspect(s) of wind turbines are of interest (e.g. is it an emperical relationship
  between wind speed and direction and power output or are you
  interested in power quality issues that arrise during rapid wind-shifts)?  

b) PV - both the thermal physics and electrical characteristics can be represented in
  detail (but only at a time frequeny of seconds).  ESP-r supports full descriptions
  of electrical distribution systems and quite a few of the components so electical
  engineers have lots to play with.  

c) Fuel cells - Natural Resources Canada have created detailed models of building-scale
   fuel cells (including the chemical reactions so there are ~100 parameters that go
   into describing a fuel cell.  

d) There are one or two cooling tower models, whether they are sufficient for
   your needs is unknown.

e) probably there is not an adsorption chiller, but it might be that the
   parameters of another component could be adapted for an approximation.

Up-front warning - dragons have been spotted near some of these topics. 

-ESRU