Potential of Solar ORC and PV Systems to Provide Electricity under Romanian Climatic Conditions

The study presents a mathematical investigation on the potential to provide electricity of different solar Organic Rankine Cycle systems and of a photovoltaic system. As input data for all the systems, were considered multiannual climatic data for Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The solar field was considered in three configurations based on flat collectors, on evacuated tubes collectors and on parabolic trough collectors. The Organic Rankine Cycle was modelled for three working fluids considering the thermal regime typical for each type of solar collectors. It was found that the maximum electric power for the solar thermal systems was situated in the range of (58.57 … 86.57) W/m2 of solar collector and for the photovoltaic system was of 103.06 W/m2 of photovoltaic collector. The maximum global efficiencies of the investigated solar thermal systems was situated in the range of (6.73 … 10.23)% while for the photovoltaic system was of 10.81%. Between the solar thermal systems, the most efficient proved to be the one based on evacuated tubes collectors. Additionally it was investigated an existing solar thermal system based on heat pipes solar collectors, located in the vicinity of Timişoara, Romania which left without consumers and in need to be converted into an electrical system.