Renewable energy systems: Industrial and home best practise case studies

Abstract

The use of renewable energies and energy

efficiency improvement systems is sometimes constrained by

the investment needed for devices and its installation. However,

governments have developed policies to reduce the initial costs

to end-users. The increasing number of renewable energy

systems can help in the reduction of the global dependency on

fossil energy sources, and simultaneously can help to ensure

that the carbon dioxide emissions quota is not exceeded, aiming

a reduction of the green-house effect. In this sense, this paper

presents two best practise case studies. One of them is in the

industrial context and other in the residence context, concerning

the use of renewable energy systems and energy efficiency

improvement strategies. The best practice case study in

industrial context involves the renewable energy systems design

in an automotive sector factory, making use of solar thermal

panels and energy efficiency measures. The non-industrial case

study covers the analysis of the energy efficiency improvement

using a thermal energy recovery system from hot water used in

daily baths or showers. The direct benefits (savings) and

indirect (impacts) are analysed for both case studies.