Multi-objective optimization of a solar-driven trigeneration system considering power-to-heat storage and carbon tax

Advanced solar driven tri-generation systems are highly relevant to reduce emissions and increase energy security. Here, solar collectors and photovoltaics are coupled to a tri-generation system to produce multiple final energy forms simultaneously for an office building. The excess solar electricity is employed for cooling/heating through a power-to-heat conversion employing thermal energy storage. Comprehensive optimization is performed to maximize the energy, environmental, and economic benefits, and the carbon tax is included to monetize the emissions. A coupled decision-making method is then used to choose the ideal scheme from the optimized sets of system configuration accompanied with a sensitivity analysis against key parameters. Compared to the conventional system, the proposed system improves the energy performance by 41.4% and the environmental benefits by 41.7% with the highest solar energy utilization rate. The economic performance improves in the best case by 14.4% only, but with the lowest utilization rate of solar energy. The ideal solution covers 30%, 54%, and 62% of the electricity, cooling, and heating loads, respectively, and the corresponded energy, environmental, and economic performance improves by 29.1%, 34.6%, and 7.7%, respectively. The sensitivity analysis shows that the economic performance is more sensitive to the electricity price than to the carbon tax. •A novel solar powered trigeneration system considering excess PV power to heat storage.•Equivalent coal consumption and carbon tax in energy and economic performance.•Coupling decision-making method after multi-objective optimization.•Solar energy covers 30% of electric, 54% of cooling and 62% of heating loads.•Sensitivity analysis against key parameters.