Zero Energy Communities with Central Solar Plants using Liquid Desiccants and Local Storage

The zero energy community considered here consists of tens to tens-of-thousands of residences coupled to a central solar plant that produces all the community's electrical and thermal needs. A distribution network carries fluids to meet the heating and cooling loads. Large central solar systems can significantly reduce cost of energy vs. single- family systems, and they enable economical seasonal heat storage. However, the thermal distribution system is costly. Conventional district heating/cooling systems use a water/glycol solution to deliver sensible energy. Piping is sized to meet the peak instantaneous load. A new district system introduced here differs in two key ways: i) it continuously distributes a hot liquid desiccant (LD) solution to LD-based heating and cooling equipment in each home; and ii) it uses central and local storage of both LD and heat to reduce flow rates to meet average loads. Results for piping sizes in conventional and LD thermal communities show that the LD zero energy community reduces distribution piping diameters meeting heating loads by ∼5X and meeting cooling loads by ∼8X for cooling, depending on climate.