Emergy analysis of applying a multi-generation system for building based on renewable energies for various weather conditions

The supply of energy through fossil fuels and the increase in harmful environmental effects caused by it has caused the supply of energy through renewable energies to be given more attention. Since residential buildings account for a significant part of the world's energy consumption, supplying their needed energy through renewable energies can be a way to reduce non-renewable energy consumption and its harmful effects on the environment. This study suggests using a combination of solar and wind energy to provide electricity, heating, cooling and freshwater for a residential building in Russia. This system, which includes FPC solar collector, a wind turbine, an absorption chiller, a hydrogen storage system and a reverse osmosis desalination unit, is subjected to a comprehensive economic–environmental evaluation through emergy analysis. Performance evaluation of the proposed system to meet the hourly demand of a building for one year and in different weather conditions of four cities of Khabarovsk, Yakutsk, Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg is investigated. The emergy analysis results illustrated that although the system has an unstable economic–environmental performance in the climatic conditions of Yakutsk city, it is stable with an environmental sustainability index (ESI) of more than 1 in the other three cities. The emergy sustainability index of the system in Khabarovsk city with a value of 2.37E + 00 showed that the system in this city has the best performance from view of economic–environmental point.