System-level energy Distribution Study of a Renewable Agricultural Microclimate System

A comprehensive analysis of the total energy distribution within an integrated design for sustainable agricultural production in coastal climatic conditions. The system configuration consists of evacuated tube collector, absorption cooling system, thermal energy storage, solar still, and greenhouse operating on humidification-dehumidification principles, provides a fundamental model for evaluating energy flow and utilization of the interconnected subsystems. Thermodynamic modelling, based on energy and mass balance along with inverse technique of Levenberg-Marquardt method, evaluates greenhouse temperature, vapor pressure deficit, and overall performance under varying solar irradiance between 275–972 W/m² for typical ambient conditions of Indian coastal-areas. The obtained results presented, stable internal temperatures of 24–28°C and relative humidity of 60–90%, with VPD maintained in the optimal 0.5-1.2 kPa range for crops such as tomatoes and cucumbers by optimizing air (60-90 kg/s) and water (≥0.7 kg/s) mass flow rates. The greenhouse system demonstrates that 90% evapotranspiration water recovery, continuous year-round operation without fossil fuels, and enhanced concentration yield (~1 m³/day per 100 m²) attained through the heat integration. The integrated design addresses, key challenges using groundwater/saline agriculture with water scarcity, overheating, and energy intensity for minimizing the energy losses and enabling scalable, low emissions in food production.