aquatic facility that consists of a family pool, a main pool, and spa, all of which require a significant amount of heat to keep both indoor and outdoor pools warm from fall to spring.

According to the study’s authors, photovoltaic technology combined with heat pumps offer a couple of advantages compared to traditional water heating.

“First, PV (photovoltaic) technology may be used in large, centralized installations as well as tiny, decentralized ones, and its efficiency is essentially unaffected by the system’s size or application. Second, in applications without any energy storage device, the cost of PV electricity can be comparable to the electricity tariff, and even cheaper in big power systems.”

The researcher’s energy and cost assessment were based on a computer simulation of the existing electrical needs of the hotel combined with the installation of a proposed photovoltaic heat pump system, utilizing technology that exists today.

The simulation estimated an annual electricity consumption of 6500 MWh with a total cost of $834,000, (converted to U.S. dollars). The estimated the initial cost of the photovoltaic system is $345,000, while that of the heat pump system is estimated at about $164,000, bringing the total cost to about $509,000, including installation and testing.

They estimate that the proposed photovoltaic heat pump system can save about $262,100 a year from the total electricity bill. That means that that the system will pay for itself (in terms of energy savings) in a little less than two years.

Meanwhile, after 10 years of operations, the profits amassed in energy savings will be $1.89 million.

“A cursory examination of the solar project’s economic factors leads to the conclusion that it is economically justified,” the researchers concluded.

Ayla Hotel, Aqaba in Jordan