integration of solid oxide fuel cells and ... - Ea Energianalyse

6. CASES AND ECONOMICS
6.3 Low humidity climate
6.3.1 Las Vegas
Tourism and gaming is the major industry of Las Vegas which is located
in the Mojave Desert, Nevada, USA. The city has had more than 39
million visitors a year (2007) [36]. So one can imagine that hotels are
in demand in this area.
Figure 6.5: Weather data for Las Vegas, USA. Average condition. Table taken from [5].
The climate reflects the location in the desert - dry and very hot
during the summer although colder during winter (see table in figure
6.5). So air conditioning is mostly needed during the late spring, summer
and fall.
In this area the relative humidity is around 40% (see figure 6.6) so
the desorber temperature is set equal to that of the optimized parameter
configuration (T DES2 = 133 ◦ C). The figure shows that the system is
efficient up to 40 ◦ C in contrast to the humid climates (φ = 0,8−0,9) where
the ambient temperature had to be below 30 ◦ C for a maximum desorber
temperature of 150 ◦ C. For the dry climate the maximum allowable
ambient temperature is 42 ◦ C, which is just enough to cope with the
maximum average temperature in Las Vegas 6.5.
A problem might occur when the ambient temperature reaches the
peak temperature in July and August (46 ◦ C), but the relative humidity is
160