Carbon dioxide emission reduction by heating poultry houses from renewable energy sources in Central Europe

- Heat requirement for a poultry house for 2400 birds is calculated
- Simple energy models for solar collectors and wind turbine are presented
- New indicators are introduced
- The system is modelled for various sizes of solar collectors, wind turbines and storage capacity

The production of thermal and electrical energy is related to the emission of greenhouse gases, which are believed to cause climatic changes. The activities of the international community show an increase of ecological awareness. In the Central European countries the share of renewable energy in overall energy production is relatively small. One sector where some progress can be made is agriculture. This paper presents simulation results of CO2 reduction potential by replacing conventional heating system for a poultry house with a hybrid solar-wind system. Heat requirement for 2400 birds was calculated. Simple models for solar collector, wind turbine and heat storage tank are presented. The system is modelled in a Matlab/Simulink environment and various system configurations are analysed for climatic conditions typical for Central Europe. The solar collector area was varied between 0 and 80 m2, wind turbine diameter was varied in the range of 0-20 m and 1 to 4 heat storage tanks. Apart from percentage of CO2 emission reduction two other indicators are introduced: renewable energy utilisation ratio and weighted CO2 emission reduction - renewable energy utilisation coefficient. The results show that larger systems provide higher CO2 reduction but the energy utilisation ratio decreases.