New approach for zero energy industries via integrating energy management and renewable energy system: Enviro-economic investigation

The building sector stands as the world's predominant energy consumer and major contributor of CO2 emissions. In the recent years, the Zero Energy Building (ZEB) concept has been gaining traction as a solution to this challenge. However, while the concept has been primarily used for residential buildings where it has shown promising results, its application in the industrial sector has not been extensively explored. So, the current study proposes a sustainable approach to achieve zero energy for an industrial site using PV system. The approach is applied on a manhole cover manufacturing company located in Alexandria, Egypt. Firstly, an energy audit is conducted to identify the energy consumption patterns and energy waste sources in the facility. Next, an energy management where various energy saving measures are implemented to optimize energy use in the facility follows. Then, an 850kWp grid connected PV array is designed and sized using PVsyst simulation tool to supply the remaining net annual energy consumption of the industrial site. The results show that the energy management reduces the entire facility's energy consumption by about 20 % with a yearly saving of energy, cost, and CO2 emission reduction of 425.3MWh, 22,536$, and 850.4 tons, respectively. Moreover, the proposed PV system proves its reliability and efficiency to supply slightly more than the remaining facility energy needs of 1257.74 MWh/year thus achieving zero energy status. With an investment of 211,480 USD, a payback period of about 4 years is estimated with a Life Cycle Emission of 18,444 tons CO2 reduction. The study shows that achieving Zero Energy Industries (ZEI) is technically and economically feasible by combining energy management and Renewable Energy Systems (RES). Besides its contribution to SDG's 7 and 13, the study elaborates the significance of implementing ISO 50001 towards energy efficient practices in industrial sites thus providing valuable insights and recommendations to various stakeholders and policy makers.