Development of a hybrid renewable energy system for residential complexes in solar-rich regions, harnessing the collaborative power of TRNSYS and the response surface methodology

This study is focused on creating an optimal solar renewable system using smart methods to improve performance and reduce its life cycle cost. The proposal aims to use a renewable energy system to power an 80-unit residential complex and achieve zero-energy status. The system includes central thermal photovoltaic (PVT) panels, a heat pump, a proton exchange membrane, a Proton exchange membrane electrolyzer, a hot water storage tank, and a fuel cell. This system can provide hot water, cooling, heating, and electricity. The performance of the proposed method was analyzed using weather data from four Iranian cities: Ahvaz, Dezful, Abadan, and Masjid Sulaiman. The four selected cities have a high potential to access solar energy and have many sunny hours daily. This system has been modeled using a new approach in TRNSYS software, optimized to enhance solar energy system performance and reduce life cycle cost (LCC) by Design Expert (DE) software, and utilizing RSM. Abadan is the best area to start the proposed project because it also has high solar potential. The optimized system has capacities of 950 PVT, 77.5 kW for the fuel cell, 20 kW for cooling, 25 kW for heating, and 92.5 kW for electrolysis. The sensitivity analysis showed that the technical and economic performance of the system is mainly influenced by the number of PVTs and the capacity of the fuel cell. The optimized design has the potential to generate 467,414.309 kWh of electricity per year and the LCC is $344,525.169.