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Design of a bus shelter based on green energy technologies for extreme weather conditions in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan

Abstract:

Green energy technologies in combination with conventional technologies can result in viable solutions in many applications within the fundamental areas of the economy, including the transportation segment. This sector has recently experienced rapid development in Nur-Sultan, capital of the Republic of Kazakhstan and one of the popular projects in the city is the construction of “warm” bus shelters. Nevertheless, current bus shelters have insufficient space for passengers and use grid electricity, which is mostly generated in heavily polluting coal-fired power plants. Thus, this paper proposes the modernization of the shelter at “Cardiac Surgery Center” bus stop by using an optimal combination of clean and conventional energy sources. The technical and financial viability analyses were performed using RETScreen 4 and HOMER LEGACY state-of-the-art software platforms, which permitted to model the energetic system and determine its technical and economic viability within given financial and market conditions. Simulations demonstrated that including a geothermal heat pump unit in the system would be a profitable solution with relatively short payback period. However, possible combinations of grid electricity with wind and solar energy technologies resulted in higher net present cost than the conventional only-grid connected system.