Exergy-based weighted optimization and smart decision-making for renewable energy systems considering economics, reliability, risk, and environmental assessments

A holistic analytical and smart management approach is proposed to investigate the performance of renewable-based tri-generation system to generate power, cooling, and domestic hot water with a simultaneous consideration of several operational, design, and system feasibility aspects in a framework. The proposed configuration consisted of a solar driven organic Rankine cycle, and double-effect absorption refrigeration cycle integrated with a Kalina cycle. To analyze environmental implications, life cycle assessments are performed, while further evaluations are conducted utilizing algebraic thermo-mathematical programming. Hazard study and thermal reliability analysis are also performed to analyze the safety and failure rate of the system. Additionally, four critical scenarios are defined: safe urban deployment, economic viability, reliable operation, and sustainable development. In accordance with the four specified scenarios the integrated system is globally optimized using a weighted multi-objective optimization. Following that, a suitable optimum system and fluid allocation is conducted based on hybrid deterministic decision-making technique under smart management. The optimization results showed that the total exergorisk, system reliability, and environmental impact can be simultaneously improved in the range of 4.08–28.3%, 4.14–13.9%, and 1.65–24.6%, in all scenarios employing various working fluids, respectively. Additionally, the system achieves lowest overall cost rate (4.17USD·s⁻¹) with R113, while the highest energetic efficiency (46.3%) and system reliability of (91.2%) was associated with R365mfc. Finally, a comparative analysis indicates a CO₂ saving potential of 6646, 4883, and 2878 tons/year in comparison to coal, fuel oil, and natural gas based integrated energy systems.